Opposite Reciprocal
by Q Illespont
Summary: It's said that not everyone in the Negaverse is morally opposite of the real world. This might be true. But don't count on it.
1. Chapter 1

OPPOSITE RECIPROCAL

Chapter 1

Copyright 2007 by Q Illespont

All characters are property of their respective owners (mostly Disney) and used without permission.

* * *

The Thunderquack soared over the city. Unusually for it and its occupants, Darkwing Duck and Launchpad McQuack, it was a bright shiny day; Darkwing preferred prowling at night. Still, he stewed in anticipation as they approached their destination. 'Come on, J Gander Hooter said it was important that we get--whoa.' 

As Launchpad flew the plane, Darkwing leaned forward to see the construction equipment surrounding SHUSH headquarters. 'What's going on here? I hope we're not too late.'

Launchpad chuckled. 'Don't worry, DW, I'll get you to J Gander's office!' He pushed forward on the controls ...

---

Vladimir Goodenov Grizzlikov grimaced as the building shook from the crash. He turned, and grumbled in his native Russian as he assessed the damages--likely thousands of dollars.

True to his word, Launchpad had delivered Darkwing to J Gander Hooter's own office in SHUSH headquarters. Much to the dismay of Chief Agent Grizzlikov, he was delivered straight in, without stopping at the secret SHUSH landing pad first. 'What are you being, duck or wrecking ball?' he bellowed.

'Now now, Agent Grizzlikov,' J Gander Hooter said as he crawled out from under his desk; he always seemed more patient with Darkwing's grand entrances, whether planned or unplanned, and could tell by how Darkwing dropped out of the smashed cockpit of his craft, surrounded by generic grey smoke instead of his trademark blue, that this was certainly unplanned on his part. 'I summonned Darkwing here so he can assist us. We're needed in the research lab.'

Darkwing groaned, half from his crash and half from wondering what new horrors--er, inventions, he self-corrected in his mind--awaited him in the R&D section. The fact he was invited helped boost his enthusiasm. 'So, what do you have in there? A new weapon? A DNA spectrolyzer? A stealth generator that can aid the midnight mallard's mission of mauling malicious Mafiosi?'

'It's actually some sort of teleporter,' Hooter said as he opened the lab's main entry vault. 'I'll let Doctor Bellum explain.'

They went in, where Doctor Sarah Bellum turned from her work and approached the party. Darkwing looked over to the taller scientist, who smiled pleasantly as she greeted the four men. 'Oh, hello, Darkwing, glad to see you again. Please pardon the mess.'

'Is like home for him,' Grizzlikov grumbled, stepping over a pile of debris. In fact, aside from the walls, much of the lab seemed disassembled, some parts explosively. Machinery lay in piles on the floor, parts dangled from wall mounts, technicians yelled as they used some smaller vehicles to load scrap.

'We've developed another secret device,' Bellum gushed, 'and we need you to help us keep it safe.' She led the group over to what appeard to be an old-fashioned telephone booth. 'And here it is!'

Darkwing looked unimpressed as he examined it. 'Let me guess, you've developed the unportable phone?' he quipped.

'Hardly,' she answered. 'Instead, this is a special device that can tap into the quantum mysteriotics that determine phase and intersection of eventualities.'

'Huh?' was all Darkwing could respond with; Launchpad was totally lost, and even Hooter and Grizzlikov seemed uncomprehending.

Doctor Bellum sighed. 'It can send you to an alternate reality.'

'Whoa,' Darkwing said. 'I could really use ... um ... er.' He scratched his head under his hat. 'Actually, what can I use it for?'

'No, no, no, Darkwing,' Bellum scolded. 'We need you to store it for a few days.'

Darkwing frowned. 'So you want me to hold onto your ... um ... what is this thing again?'

Doctor Bellum beamed and said, 'I forgot to tell you--we call it a Teleporter to Alternate Reality Disguised As a Telephone--TARDAT for short.'

Launchpad thought for a few moments, then asked, 'Tar dat what?'

Before Doctor Bellum could answer, Hooter intervened. 'The original name for the project was a Telephone for Assisting Reconnaissance in Dimensions Instead of Space, or TAR--'

Grizzlikov immediately shushed the SHUSH leader with a paw over his beak and looked grimly to Darkwing. 'Lawyers from British BBC broadcasting demanded us seize and desist with acronym. Is mark of trade to them.'

'Ooooh, right.' Darkwing was sympathetic to the lawyers from his own efforts in maintaining his own image for merchandising.

Hooter prodded Grizzlikov's paw away. 'Anyway, Darkwing, we need you to securely store this device.'

'Of course. What are you hiding it from--FOWL finagling? Fearsome Five felony? Doctor Slug trying to infiltrate disguised as an ordinary--'

Hooter shook his head as he interrupted Darkwing. 'No, Darkwing. We're remodelling the building.'

Darkwing sagged. 'And you need me to hide it from the contractors?'

Hooter nodded. 'Exactly.'

Doctor Bellum added, 'Especially since the last time we left projects lying around for remodelling, five contractors disappeared and a sixth developed a third arm.'

'What happenned to him?' Launchpad asked.

'He raised his rates by 50 percent.'

Darkwing waved his arms. 'Allright, let's get this loaded.'

---

Gosalyn bounded down the stairs as the day broke. It was promised to be a bright shiny summer's day, and she was ready to get out and enjoy it. She threw open the front door, took in a lungful of the summer Saint Canard air ... and promptly sputtered as she was hit full in the face with a thunderstorm.

Slamming the door shut, she grumbled and tried to wring the water out of her jersey and her hair. 'Great. There goes baseball practice,' she groused, then smiled. 'Or does it?'

She quickly ran over to the telephone and punched in a familiar number. 'Hey, H--um, Mrs Muddlefoot! Could you put Honker on the phone?'

'Why, certainly, Gosalyn!' the perky housewife answered, and Gosalyn could hear her walk off and yell for her son.

After a few more footsteps, she heard Honker pick up. 'Yeah, Gos?' he asked.

'Hi, Honker. Say, it's raining out and I thought we could get in some practice up in the tower.'

She could hear Honker's hesitation as he answered, 'But your dad--'

She cut him off quickly. 'Dad's asleep, and he won't be up till it's night. Besides, we'll cover up anything fragile. Come on!'

'Oh, allright..'

'Great! Meet you there!' She hung up and dashed to the chairs, hit the statue, and spun to the Tower.

---

Honker eyed the vast chamber warily. 'Gosalyn, are you sure this is gonna be allright? The last time you broke something, your dad threw a fit.'

'Relax, Honker,' she replied. 'I promised Dad I wouldn't do batting practice in here. Besides, he hid my bat.'

'So what're we going to do?'

'Something safe,' she said, and shoved a baseball into Honker's hands. He already had his glove, and hurriedly put it on as she set down a piece of sheet metal. 'We're gonna work on your pitching!'

'But--'

'Come on, Honker. It doesn't matter how many runs I knock in if the other team gets more!'

'But we need someone to help me set up a strike zone,' Honker protested. 'It's based on the batter's knees and torso.'

'I said don't worry, Honker.' Gosalyn jogged a few yards away, gauged the distance, shrugged off any possible errors, and set down a facsimile of a home plate. She then dashed off, and returned with her catcher's gear and a life-size statue of Darkwing, posing heroically. 'Just pretend this's the batter,' she said, and set it up to stand by the plate. She then crouched down, smacked the catcher's mitt she held, and sneered. 'Now let's get a curveball in here!'

Honker took his stance, checked the nonexistent bases around him, reared back, and threw the ball. He smiled as it sped towards Gosalyn's glove and slapped home.

'Right over the inside corner--steeeeerike one!' she called and threw it back. 'Gimme a slider!'

Honker nodded, more confident. He wound up, pitched, and was rewarded with a thwap and a giggle. 'Right across the knees and Darkwing Duck is now at 0 and 2! Let's sucker him in with something low and outside!' Gosalyn threw the ball back.

Honker wound up and threw. Gosalyn reached down for the pitch ... then quickly got the ball into her left hand and hurled it back past Honker. He ducked and heard it bounce off behind him as Gosalyn walked up. 'And the runner's gunned down at second!'

'Gosh, Gos,' he said, 'why aren't you pitching? That's a fast throw.'

'Because..' She thought for a moment. While she was confident she could handle the mound (as well as any base, shortstop, anything in the outfield, as well as managing and coaching), she still needed teammates--as the ball rolling against the far wall testified, lacking an actual second baseman or shortstop to field the throw-out attempt. And she knew enough that Honker wouldn't like being put on the mound just as a favour to him, especially since he was a decent pitcher in his own right. Plus, there was the fact that she preferred offense to fielding.

She finally recovered from her planning. 'Er..because the catcher tells the pitcher what to do, right? So I tell you what to pitch and you burn it in there!'

'I could--'

Gosalyn interrupted him by yelling, 'Become a Cy Young winner!' and ran over to get the ball. She handed it back to Honker on the way back, and got in position behind the plate. 'OK, Honk, it's now 3 and 2, and the guy on third is ready to break for home. Two outs, and we don't wanna risk an error. Gimme the high heat!'

Honker shook his head, settled, and wound up once more. He focussed on the glove, held at about the centre of the strike zone, and put everything he could into the pitch.

His foot then slipped out from under him. As he fell to the ground, he could tell he put too much effort and not enough control. Just as he landed on the hard floor, he saw and heard the ball smack the head off the statue, and watched it deflect from the impact as it sailed on past.

Gosalyn winced. 'Aaand ... he reaches hit by pitch,' she groused..then cringed as she heard an all too familiar sound, a baseball smashing through glass. 'What?'

Honker got up and ran with Gosalyn over to where the ball had flown to. They blinked in surprise at what they found: the shattered glass was from an old steel telephone booth. 'Whoa,' they both gaped as they looked at it.

'This isn't an old facsimile,' Honker finally said. 'There's no wiring or anything connecting it to the phone lines.'

'It must be a hotline to the President!' Gosalyn yelled out. 'I knew they'd finally figure out all the stuff Dad does for the world!'

'I'm not sure about that, Gos. Why would it be in a phone booth?'

Gosalyn walked over and opened the door to survey the damage inside. 'They were probably in a hurry. Besides, it's government stuff, not like SHUSH stuff.' She tried to climb in, and grunted. 'Hey..what gives?'

Honker came over and poked warily. 'It's like it's smaller on the inside than it is on the outside.'

'Weird,' Gosalyn replied. 'Anyway, there's a phone in there. I guess I'd better call the window guys.'

'But how'll they get here?'

Gosalyn managed to get inside and lifted the receiver. 'I'll tell 'em to bring it back to the house. Then we get it back here. I'm sure you've saved up enough allowance to pay for it, anyway.'

Honker gaped. 'Me?'

Gosalyn nodded. 'Yep. For ONCE it's not my fault for breaking the glass. Cool, huh?'

'Wonderful.'

Gosalyn frowned as she held the telephone to her ear. 'Great, no dial tone.' She banged on the switchhook a few times. 'Honker, can you check if this thing's plugged in?'

'I thought I already said it wasn't,' he answered. 'Just the box here.'

Gosalyn grumbled. 'Great,' she said, and started stabbing the 0 button repeatedly. 'Come on, someone, pick up.'

After a few stabs, she finally heard a voice through the telephone. It sounded like a standard recording and said, 'Thank you for activating the TARDAT. You have selected ... "unknown" ... as your destination. Please enjoy your trip in the Teleporter to Alternate Reality Disguised As a Telephone.'

'Honker,' she said, 'that sounds weird.' She hung up the phone and turned to exit, but the door suddenly slammed shut. 'Hey!' she yelled. 'Open this up!'

Honker jumped back as the door snapped closed, and started pulling. 'It's stuck!' he said.

Gosalyn looked around the now glowing, shuddering, groaning booth, and then looked to the smashed windowpanes. 'Well, it can't get any more broken,' she mutterred, and dove for the opening. She then screamed as she was caught by some sort of energy field, and flung back into the booth. 'Honker!'

'What's it doing? What'd it say?' he asked. He ran over to the broken window and tried to reach in, but felt the force barrier as he tried to get in. Straining, he yelled, 'Grab my hands!'

Gosalyn reached to hold on, but as she almost touched Honker's outstretched hands, the energy surged again, sending the two children flying away from each other. Gosalyn winced as she slammed into the opposite wall of the booth, and jumped to her feet ... only to hit her head on the telephone unit itself. She slumped back down, dazed.

'It feels like a magnetic field,' Honker yelled over the growing din. 'I think it's trying to make up for the broken glass!'

'Huh?' was all Gosalyn could manage. She stayed down, watching the glowing lights and wondering which were real and which were just the booth.

Honker stood back as the entire booth suddenly shook, jumped a few times, and gave out one huge wheeze. Then, to his astonishment, it exploded, knocking him over with the onrush of air and sound. He got to his hands and knees, rearranged his glasses, and stared over at the slight scorch mark on the floor where the booth once stood.

'Gosalyn? Gosalyn? Gosalyn!'


	2. Chapter 2

OPPOSITE RECIPROCAL

Copyright 2007 by Q Illespont

All characters are property of their respective owners.

* * *

Chapter 2 

Gosalyn groaned and finally got to her feet just as the booth stopped shaking. She rubbed her head as she looked around, then stepped out of the booth, and fell flat on her face. 'Honker?' she asked, trying to find him.

As she recovered from everything, she stared as she looked around the Tower. Instead of being filled up with tons of crimefighting equipment, it was barren--not even much dust had accumulated. She got to her feet and took off her catcher's mask and pads. 'Honker? Where are you? What's going on?' she asked as she wandered in the empty room.

She wandered into another chamber, and caught a glimpse of the towers of Saint Canard. Running quickly, she got to the window to examine things--the last time she'd had a mysterious disorienting trip, she found herself 20 years or so in the future, under the dictatorial rule of a maddened Darkwing, then DarkWarrior, Duck. Still, the city looked like it normally did--just enough grime to be a real city, occasional police sirens.

She let out a sigh of relief, and took a while to just enjoy the panorama before her. Ever since Darkwing first rescued her and brought her up to the tower, she always loved the sight. One thing is how she associated it with her father to begin with--it was one of the first things he'd shown her. Granted, the first thing she'd given him was a left to the gut, but it was a stressful time anyway. Still, the view was comforting.

She sighed and turned around, then blinked. 'Wait a minute,' she said, and looked again. While Saint Canard itself was still the same, she saw something else--off in the distance, she could make out a grey shape. Turning her head, she saw the shape approaching, and saw what it was.

A grey wall spread around the city, encompassing the whole area, including the bridge. 'What's going on here?' She ran over to the other side and looked out the opposite window to check things out, and gasped.

On the other side of the tower, she could see the surrounding countryside. Here, the wall came closer, and she could see it cutting across the Audubon Highway, as well as the contrast between inside and out.

On the inside of the wall, things were nearly the same as they normally were, up until you got close to the wall. She could see the barbed wire and a few patrol vehicles on the inside, as if it were an armed camp. There was a stream of traffic coming along the highway, although she could see that each vehicle was carefully checked by the guards on the inside as they entered.

Past the wall and the gate, things looked worse. A few green areas were still around, but she could see how it wasn't as peaceful as she remembered. The few homes she could see were buttonned up tight, with what looked like guard towers and bunkers. It looked like past the wall, it was a war zone. 'Creepy,' she thought. 'It's almost like "The World Went to Hell Except for Us II".'

She turned back around, and gasped as she looked at the room she was now in. Unlike the others which were bare save for the booth, this one had a few things. Most noticable was a giant mallet resting on what looked like a table, with a few axes lying around it. A little distance away, there was a glass chamber, with broken glass lying around it as if what- or whoever was inside had broken out. And, in the corner like it should be, the only other familiar thing she'd seen the whole time, a set of spinning chairs just like the ones in her house.

She dashed over and hit the trigger for the chairs. The catch released, and the chair itself trembled under her, then spun forward ... and flung her into the giant mallet's side. 'Ow.'

She grumbled and grabbed a discarded hatchet from where she slid off the mallet. 'It's broken again,' she grumbled, and brandished her axe. 'You'd better work this time!' she threatened, and hit the trigger again. This time, the chair shuddered again, and she heard the gears grinding, but the chair did not spin at all.

'Great, I gotta walk home,' she mumbled. She stashed the axe in her jersey and headed out onto the suspension cables. She jogged along it, balancing easily, and dropped onto the highway. Unusually, the traffic was lighter--probably from the military checkpoint at the edge of the city. That just made it easier for her to head into the city.

---

Gosalyn wandered along the familiar streets. Nothing seemed too out of place, although there was something she couldn't quite understand. Some things seemed just slightly different, but nothing she could put a finger on. The streets seemed to be the same, the population was a little wary but given Saint Canard's usual crime level, that was to be expected.

She found herself walking past a police precinct station near Banks Boulevard. Nothing unusual here, either--same building, same police cars in use. And, across the street, same FOWL Eggman talking to what looked like a mother wheeling her baby in a stroller.

Wait ... yes, it was the same FOWL Eggman, including yellow uniform and eggshell helmet. She looked around, and saw the police station. Normally, she'd prefer if her father or, failing that, SHUSH agents could handle this, and thought of taking things on herself, but the police station caught her eye, and she rushed to get inside and report it.

As she burst through the door, alarms started blaring. Before she could start yelling for a cop, she heard what sounded like a mechanical voice warning, 'Metal detected! Visitor is armed!' She looked around sheepishly and pulled the axe she found earlier out of her jersey, and then got a good look at the two approaching officers.

They were also FOWL Eggmen.

One opened his mouth; before he could say anything, Gosalyn brought the blunt back of the axe up to knock his chin back up, sending him down with what she hoped was a broken beak. The other Eggman came at her, and she spun with the axe still held high, then brought it down on his head. A loud KLANG rewarded her strike; while the helmet and the height difference took the lethality out of the chop, the helmet did slide in two afterward and left the second Eggman lying on the ground.

Breathing hard, she glared around. The other people in the station were either backing away, cowering on the ground, or outright fleeing. The 'desk sergeant', another Eggman, was yelling into a telephone. 'We need backup, now!'

'Just try to get me!' she yelled defiantly and broke out in a run. She dashed a few blocks away and risked a look over her shoulder, only to find what looked like a small squad of Eggmen running after her, weapons drawn. 'I was just kidding about getting me!' she yelled and ran faster, arms and legs pumping as she fled.

She found a crowd of citizens waiting for a bus, and dashed through them. They did part way for her for the most part once they noticed, and spent enough time gaping that the pursuing squad was blocked. She rounded a corner, panting for breath. She was just lucky that they hadn't fired at her, and she knew it. Fortunately, her luck was still holding--she saw a taxi waiting right there.

Gosalyn yanked the door open and dove into the backseat. 'Get me outta here!' she yelled at the driver, who jumped in surprise, then complied. She hopped on the backseat to stare out the back window, and chuckled as her pursuers were left behind.

'Hey, lady, where to?' the driver asked. She sighed and rested more normally in the backseat as she looked him over. Rather nondescript canine, just doing his job.

'537 Avian Way,' she replied.

'Avian Way?' he answered. 'Um, ya sure about that?'

'What? Just go there.'

'Allright,' he replied, and turned on the radio. Gosalyn tuned it out for the most part, until an announcer broke through the music.

'We interrupt this station to bring you an emergency. FOWL chief Steelbeak has reported that a terrorist is running loose in Saint Canard!' the announcer said. 'This terrorist has just recently attacked a police substation, leaving two Eggmen unconscious.'

'Whoa, that's me they're talking about,' she thought to herself. 'Must've gotten bad if Steelbeak's making public announcements.'

The announcer continued. 'The terrorist is described as a young girl, red hair, slightly yellow feathers. She was last seen wearing a purple jersey with a number 1 on it, and is armed--repeat, armed. The public is warned that if they spot her, to avoid contact and to inform the police immediately. That is all.'

The cab driver grunted, then looked in his rear-view mirror, then gasped. In shock, he turned around to stare at his passenger. The description was rather rushed, but he could still tell--especially by the axe that was still lying next to her. 'Hey, that's you!'

Gosalyn cowered for a moment, then remembered that she was indeed armed. She grabbed the axe and brandished it. 'Just get me to Avian way!' she yelled. The driver yelped and returned to driving, although she could see he was also watching her as much as he was the road.

Before he could turn onto Avian Way itself, Gosalyn figured that getting out right then and there would be best. The driver was already nervous, and she didn't want him to get more information on her--she was already hoping he didn't remember the exact address. She checked the meter, threw about as much cash at him, grabbed her axe, and bailed out of the cab while it was still rolling. Before she could even get to her feet, she heard the tires squeal and hurl the cab away. 'Great,' she thought, and started running up the road.

Looking around herself, she saw that the cab had gotten her to the 800 block, so she didn't have far to go before she got home. Still, things looked very different. Rather than the well-cared lawns she had left behind that morning, the lots here had a certain blight to them. Some of the homes even had bullet holes in the walls and doors. The street itself was pocked with at best potholes, at worst outright craters. No wonder the cabbie didn't want anything to do with this street.

Before she got to her block, she saw a furtive shape. Before she could make out any details, it dove into a nearby hedge. She ran over to it and reached in, grabbed, and pulled out ... Honker Muddlefoot. Dressed in what looked like battle fatigues. 'Cool outfit, Honker,' she said. 'What's up with the neighbourhood?'

Honker just stared at her as if she was babbling. He then looked over her shoulder and snarled. 'Megavolt!' he sneered.

Gosalyn turned around and stared. About ten metres away was the yellow-suited supervillain Megavolt, crackling with his trademark electricity. 'I knew I'd find you here, Muddlefoot,' he snarled. 'Gosalyn--'

Before Megavolt could finish his demand, Honker grabbed Gosalyn and held her in front. 'Just try it, Sparky!'

Megavolt stewed. 'Don't call me Sparky!' he yelled, and looked for a clear shot.

Gosalyn squirmed. 'Honker, what are you doing?' she said, and shoved at him. 'Go get--'

'Shut it!' Honker snarled, and tried to hold on with one arm. He was stronger than she remembered, and much to Gosalyn's surprise, more heavily armed; he balanced a rocket launcher on her shoulder and fired it at the electric rodent.

Megavolt dove to the side as the rocket burst where he stood. He aimed his finger, and sent a blue bolt of electricity at the children. Gosalyn tried to dodge, but was held in place by Honker and was hit full force.

Honker leaped back as the shock hit Gosalyn, dropped his weapon, and ran down the road. Gosalyn smouldered for a few seconds, groaned, and slumped down to the street. The last thing she saw was Megavolt racing to her ...


	3. Chapter 3

OPPOSITE RECIPROCAL  
Copyright 2007 by Q Illespont  
All characters are property of their respective owners.  
Chapter 3

* * *

Darkwing grumbled, waking up as he heard his name yelled. 'What is it..Honker?' he said once he recognised the voice. 

'Something terrible happenned in the tower, Mr Mallard!'

'What?' Darkwing grumpily answered. He was in his usual civilian garb, a sweater and undershirt. He'd learned to not sleep around the house in costume, or even his mask. 'What were you doing up there anyway?'

'Gosalyn suggested we get some practice up there and I threw and the glass broke and it blew up and I don't know where she went!'

'Honker, calm down. What were you doing up in the tower?'

Honker caught his breath and gulped; he wasn't looking forward to explaining just what was going on, or the results. Still, he had no idwa how to make things right. 'Gosalyn and I were practicing my pitching, and the pitch went wild and hit a phone booth you had up there.'

'What?' he said. 'There aren't any phone booths up there. Just that ... thing from ... SHUSH ... '

He looked over to Honker, then ran to the chairs to send himself to the Tower.

---

Gosalyn groaned as she opened her eyes and shifted in bed. Bed?

She looked around. The last thing she remembered was getting between a battle between Megavolt and, of all people, Honker. Still disoriented from whatever had happened to bring her to this version of the city, she wasn't able to avoid a blast from Megavolt, and was apparently stunned.

Wait, she thought to herself. Honker had used her as a shield! She made a mental note to smack him for that, and took in her surroundings, expecting the bleak electrician's nightmare of Megavolt's lair.

To her surprise, instead of walls covered with broken and twisted appliances, she saw a soft pink decor. Shelves held frilly dolls in pretty dresses. A partially open closet revealed lacy pink dresses as well. On one wall, she saw in soft blue her name written in elegant cursive, with hearts dangling off the descenders of the G and y. On the other, she saw a Minnie Mouse lamp with a frilly pink lampshade. A 'Princesses on Ice' poster was on the back of her door.

Grimacing, she looked at the bed she was lying in--there was no way it could be hers. Especially since this seemed to be a canopy bed, with a pink comforter that featured what looked like three lost puppies. She looked at herself under the covers and shuddered; instead of her normal nightwear, she was wearing more frilly pink, featuring a smiling kitten.

'This must be dad's revenge for remaking his image,' she grumbled, and got out of her bed. She walked to the door, opened it up, and yelled out. 'Dad! Where's my stuff?'

'GET HER!' she heard, and suddenly noticed some differences. One, while the living room was on the ground floor, so was her room. Two, Megavolt and Quackerjack were rushing at her, tackling her to the ground while Tank Muddlefoot ran to a radio and started yelling into it. 'She's awake! Get back!'

Gosalyn struggled; while she was in good shape and stronger than most her age, she was still being pinned by two adults, one of whom could zap her into submission at any point. 'You two are toast once Darkwing Duck finds you!' she yelled, still squirming.

'Darkwing Duck?' Tank said as he walked over. Gosalyn saw that for some reason he was wearing a sweater, shirt and tie, and a pair of glasses on his beak. 'Darkwing Duck left this universe several years ago.'

'WHAT?' Gosalyn yelled. 'He wouldn't ever leave Saint Canard!'

'I told you,' Tank said to the two others, 'she is not our Gosalyn, and it is unlikely she knows of her.'

Megavolt asked, 'What was I supposed to do, just leave her there? Your brother was hanging around and starting things. I just thought he was disguised as her when he took out those cops.'

'I still think she's a robot duplicate,' Quackerjack said. 'I just wish I could see how they made her. A real living robot girl!'

Gosalyn blew him a raspberry. 'I am NOT a robot!'

She heard a door open, and footsteps approaching her, two sets. One sounded leafy, so she figured that was Bushroot, another cohort. This was proven correct when she heard his voice say, 'Is the evil robot awake?'

'I SAID I AM NOT AN EVIL ROBOT DOUBLE!'

She looked back, and saw Reginald Bushroot looking over her, followed by another face. Gosalyn gasped as she looked up at it; it was that of a girl, about her age. With the same facial structure and off-white feathers. And the same red hair, although this was arranged in curls instead of the two quick pigtails she usually wore. 'Who are you?' she asked.

The other girl giggled. 'My name's Gosalyn! Welcome to the lair of the Friendly Four!'

'And who are you?' Bushroot added.

'I'm Gosalyn Mallard, and--'

Before Gosalyn could finish her threat, the girl above her gasped and shrank back. Even Megavolt and Quackerjack seemed to retreat. Gosalyn realized that now was her best chance, and squirmed loose from their grasp, and looked around. Now upright, she could see that the girl was wearing a pink dress, black dress shoes, and ribbons in her hair. 'That's right, you can't hold onto Gosalyn Mallard that easily!' she boasted.

She looked over to the girl, who was trembling behind Tank. Tank was shivering too. 'Don't hurt her!' he said.

She glared around herself, and saw the villains, now calling themselves the Friendly Four, trying to form some sort of perimeter. Wait. 'Friendly Four?' she asked.

"That's right, Miss,' Megavolt said in response. 'We're here to defend Saint Canard from evil doubles like you!'

'For the last time, I AM NOT AN EVIL DOUBLE!' Gosalyn screamed, then paused. 'Hey, wait a minute. You guys are defending the city?'

'That's right,' Quackerjack answered.

'Keen gear,' Gosalyn said. 'I must be in an alternate opposite universe!'

Tank looked up from his cowering and nodded meekly. 'Y..yeah, you're in the Negaverse. Are you from Darkwing's world?'

'From there? I'm his d--' She paused; this could be an alternate universe, or a trap. Either way, she thought, it would be best to be careful with secret identities. 'Er, I'm the president of his fan club!'

'That's impossible,' Tank said.

The other Gosalyn, however, seemed eager to believe. 'I knew she was allright!' she gushed, and ran to hug her. The adults tried to tell her no, but it was too late.

The 'real' Gosalyn, as she thought of herself, winced as the cute adorable duckling dashed to hug her, but gave her a game pat on the back. 'Um, yeah, we're all friendly here and no-one is an evil double of anything here.'

'So why did you attack those cops, then?' Megavolt pressed.

Gosalyn winced as she was reminded of the incident, then thought, then smiled. 'Well..remember, I'm from an opposite universe. If FOWL Eggmen--they're still called Eggmen, right?'

Megavolt nodded, and Gosalyn continued. 'Well, if Eggmen are cops here, what do you think they are where I'm from? They're crooks back home! And since I'm a good guy, I attacked them!'

The others paused for thought, and she noticed that they seemed to defer to Megavolt, who was rubbing his chin. 'It makes sense,' he finally admitted. 'But we'd better call Steelbeak and at least let him know we've got you here.'

Gosalyn shuddered for a moment, then forced herself to remember that she'd crossed universes. 'OK..but if this is an opposite universe, what's "FOWL" stand for?'

Tank answered her. 'The Fraternal Order of World Lawmen. They do their best to clear up crime. It's gotten easier since Darkwing was here.'

'And SHUSH?'

'A terrorist organisation. We don't even know what the letters stand for, if anything. We've just recently captured their leader, J Gander Hooter.'

'Whoa.'

Tank then asked, 'Why are you less surprised than Darkwing was when I explained it to him?'

'Easy,' she answered. 'I've opened my eyes to a wider variety of theories on the universe!' Via the science fiction section of the video store, she didn't add. 'By the way, where's my clothes?'

'Um,' Quackerjack said, 'between Megavolt's stunblast and Honker's bazooka, your jersey was sort of trashed beyond repair, so we let you have one of Gosalyn's. Er, the real Gosalyn's.'

Goslayn herself winced. 'First things first..anyone here know where I can get a real shirt to wear? No offense, but I'm not gonna spend my first days in an alternate universe dressed up like a Pretty Prissy doll.'

---

Darkwing prowled around the scorched steel where the TARDAT once stood, peering through his custom magnifying glass for clues. He picked up a few pieces of glass that still lay around the area, and even looked over the baseball.

'So,' he asked, 'the two of you were--note, against my parental orders--conducting baseball practice up here.'

'Gosalyn said we wouldn't do batting,' Honker said, twiddling his thumbs nervously. His parents were typically more easygoing than Darkwing was, which was a bit of a shock when he first started hanging out with the unique Mallard family.

'That's a surprise,' Darkwing muttered. 'Still, the fact her bat was still in her room supports your story.'

'She said you hid it.'

Darkwing looked over to him. 'I did not,' he said. 'She just didn't find it under her laundry.' He then circled the scorch marks a few times, muttering to himself. Honker could make out a few details--he was noting to himself the particular patterns. 'Tell me again exactly what she did,' he asked.

Honker relayed the story again. Darkwing stood and thought. 'Well, Honker, this could mean two things. Either the TARDAT was functioning properly, and propelled Gosalyn to another dimension ... or it malfunctioned, blowing her to bits.'

Launchpad stepped over. 'You seem pretty calm, DW,' he said.

'That's because I have analysed the scene and fortunately found no signs of detonation. While there are scorch marks, an explosion would have also caused Gosalyn to be affected, and there are no signs of blood, feathers, or other duck remains. Therefore, she has not exploded.'

'Unless it blew up and sent everything to the other universe, including her remains,' Launchpad added.

Darkwing drooped. 'I really wish you hadn't brought that up.'

---

Gosalyn looked out the windows of Megavolt's car in amazement. While the city looked the same, there were undeniable signs that she was in another world. The most noticable was a large statue of Darkwing Duck posing heroically, which she saw as they went past City Hall. It even included a cape fluttering in the breeze. 'Wow, Darkwing would just love to see that! Where's a camera when you need one?'

'Oh, we have that on postcards,' Megavolt said as the electric car went on. 'Now, I'm gonna explain to Steelbeak what went on, and I've got you and the real Gosalyn to help back it up. Just try not to attack any more cops with axes, OK?'

'Allright, but why is she the "real" Gosalyn?' she asked as they reached a sporting goods store. 'I mean, this is the Negaverse, so why isn't she the Nega-Gosalyn?'

'Because,' Megavolt said, 'this is the real world, and you're the one from the weird alternate universe.'

'We could call you Dark-Gosalyn,' the other girl suggested.

'Hmm. "Dark Gosalyn",' she thought. 'I like the sound of that. And do you think you can spring for having my name on the back of the jersey just to help?' Might as well get some bonuses from here, she thought to herself--her father wouldn't pay the extra for that.

'Sure,' Megavolt said as he parked outside what the signs said was the local Glomgold

They walked in, and Gosalyn found a style of jersey she liked. Unlike her normal, this was a dark green, with white trim and a 4 as a number. It reminded her slightly of her Quiverwing Quack colours. When they approached the desk clerk, the other Gosalyn handed over the money. Gosalyn herself asked, 'Can I have "Mallard" across the back?'

The clerk gave her a disdainful look and answered, 'No, kid. You should know better.' She looked to Megavolt and 'Nega-Gosalyn', as she thought of her, and saw both were likewise uncomfortable.

'Allright,' she conceded, 'how about "Dark Goslayn?' The clerk sighed and started adding the letters.

---

Darkwing fidgeted as Sarah Bellum scanned the area where the TARDAT stood. He was never comfortable with inviting anyone else up into his headquarters even under the best of times, but the SHUSH scientist was his best chance at getting his daughter back from wherever she ended up. With her was SHUSH head J Gander Hooter.

'I forgot to disable its teleportation circuits,' Dr Bellum said as she looked over her equipment. 'I figured since we only found one universe suitable for life that we wouldn't have to worry.'

'Only ONE world that can support life? I feel SO much better!' Darkwing fumed. 'So, what are the chances Gosalyn's been teleported to terrible, toxic, or tempestuous times?'

'Relax, Darkwing,' Hooter said. 'The TARDAT would not activate if it found the other dimension uninhabitable; thus, we have only been able to use it once. So, while Dr Bellum tries to discover if it went to that world with her equipment, we can review the footage from the one trip we did take.' He produced a videotape, and put it into the big-screen player.

The screen flickered, and the familiar panorama of the SHUSH lab was visible. Dr Bellum's voice came on as a voice-over, narrating. 'Preparations are set for experiment 429. Destination universe coded in as 0-0-0. Now dialing.' Three touch-tones were heard, followed by an automated voice. The room lit up, the camera shook, and the scene exploded.

When the picture reassembled, it appeared to be in the lab again, but what was noticable even before the narration restarted were the FOWL Eggmen standing around. Steelbeak himself was looking over--the shine from his namesake beak was unmistakable as he turned to the camera. 'Hey, it's dat witch, Bellum! Get her!' he yelled. Dr Bellum screamed over the microphone, a few telephone touchtones were heard, and as the FOWL Eggmen closed in, the screen shook again and exploded before reassembling in the shape of the SHUSH lab

'And that's it,' Hooter said as he stopped the playback. 'The journey did not last long before circumstances forced an abort.'

'Hold the phone,' Darkwing said, mind racing as he analysed the information he was shown. 'Back it up a few minutes, to before Dr Bellum screamed.' He watched the replay retreat, and nodded. 'I see ... yes, that's it! That explains everything!'

'What, Darkwing?' Hooter said.

'Look over here. See Steelbeak there? Look at him carefully.'

'I don't see anything unusual.'

'What, you haven't noticed his suit? Look at it. It's perfectly ordinary!'

'I don't get what you're talking about, Darkwing,' Hooter answered. 'Why is it ordinary what he wears?'

'Because Steelbeak wouldn't be caught dead in something ordinary. He either imports, bribes, or steals only the best suits for himself. Plus, remember what he was yelling--he recognised Dr Bellum, but he didn't call her a do-gooder or anything like that. He called her a witch.'

Dr Bellum walked over and responded, 'That's silly. Magic isn't real, it's just a bunch of illusions and hocus-pocus.'

'Then what about psychic powers?' Launchpad pointedly asked.

'Oh, those are real. Science is distinct from the paranormal.'

'Right,' Darkwing said, figuring a discussion on how real magic is would wait until more important matters were taken care of. 'Still ... it's not a typical piece of witty banter from him. Unless he thought you really were a witch, which you might be in the Negaverse! And that also explains the whole "one other universe" thing!'

'Really, Darkwing?' Hooter asked. 'How so?'

'It's simple! You guys tested the TARDAT from the lab, right?' The others nodded.

'The secret lab,' Darkwing continued. This drew another nod.

'The secret UNDERGROUND lab.' This drew blank stares, and Darkwing sighed--for being two of the brightest SHUSH had to offer, it seemed agonizing that they did not understand what he was talking about.

'The secret underground-by-half-a-MILE lab that would be nothing but solid dirt and rock if it weren't for SHUSH digging it out!' he yelled. Calming down, he continued. 'That means that unless another universe had dug down in that exact same spot, there wouldn't be anyplace to teleport into. Thus, no inhabitable space, no teleportation. But apparently the Negaverse's FOWL has a lab there--and they thought you were the Negaverse version of Sarah Bellum!'

'Amazing,' Hooter said.

'Yep, yep yep,' Darkwing gloated, straightening his lapels. 'Nothing to it.'

'So, is this site in this "Negaverse" of yours as safe as this location is?' Bellum asked.

Darkwing paled for a moment, remembering when he travelled to the past from his tower, but shook his head--the TARDAT couldn't travel in time. And he remembered the location very well. 'Yes, it is.' He then relaxed. 'At least she's not in any immediate danger,' he said, wiping his brow.

'But if the Negaverse is the opposite of this universe,' Bellum asked, 'wouldn't she come across the Negaverse version of you? A Nega-Darkwing?'

Bellum felt a slight chill as she saw Darkwing's expression change, even under his purple mask. 'You mean NegaDuck. He's the Negaverse version of me. That's why he was so often able to impersonate me.'

'I see,' Hooter noted. 'So, where does he fit into this "Negaverse"'s order?'

'He ruled over at least Saint Canard. I helped depose him,' Darkwing said smugly. 'Well ... with the help of some others.'

'Like who?'

'The Negaverse versions of the Fearsome Five. They should be running the place now. As long as Gosalyn doesn't try to behead anyone, she should be safe until we can get back there. So, Doctor Bellum,' Darkwing said as he swept to her, 'where are the plans to make another TARDAT?'

'Right here,' she said, and held up a thick telephone book.

Darkwing could swear he felt his hat droop in disappointment. 'Tell me that's just a clever disguise, please.'

'Oh, of course it is. That way we can hide it in the TARDAT in case it breaks down and needs repair.'

'Whew. So when do we start?'

Dr Bellum opened the book and pointed. 'Right ... here?'

All four ducks stared at where her finger landed. 'Whoa,' Launchpad said, 'how'd you guess I wanted angel-food cake?' He wrote down the number.

---

Megavolt led the two Gosalyns, one in a pretty dress, one in a new green hockey jersey, up the steps to police headquarters. Gosalyn couldn't help but shudder as they walked in under the large FOWL logo. It was eerily similar to the one in her world, but the talons of the claw held a badge instead. She tried to remember if it was posted on the other station on Banks Boulevard, where she first encountered the Negaverse's Eggmen.

As they were escorted to the chief's office, they saw Steelbeak himself at his desk. Gosalyn noted again a difference between her world and this one: instead of the probably expensive suits that she usually saw the FOWL agent wearing, here he was in an ordinary uniform. He nodded in greeting to Megavolt, and looked over the two girls. 'Gee. I wonder which one is our little terrorist,' he said, fixing his glare on her.

She smiled weakly and waved. 'Um, I'm from Darkwing Duck's world, and over there--'

Steelbeak cut her off with a disdainful snort. 'Enough mythology. Megs here vouches that you're OK, so I might be able to chalk it up to confusion--IF youse guys can prove that you can go from one world to another!'

'Oh, that's easy,' Gosalyn said. 'I stepped in some sort of weird phone booth thing and it blew up and dropped me in the tower!'

'Show me.'

---

'So,' Darkwing fumed, 'you're telling me that a, Gosalyn is trapped in the Negaverse with b, a flaky reality-hopping device and c, we have NO way of building another one because d, you left the instructions in the machine itself?!'

'We meant for it to be in there,' Dr Bellum said, 'so we could repair it if there were a problem in the field!'

'And what was supposed to happen when somehow it ends up travelling off by itself?!'

'Well, Darkwing, we were hoping that you'd help prevent that.'

Darkwing felt the bottom fall out of his tantrum. 'OK, so there was a minor setback. Do you have some way to bring it back?'

'Of course we do.'

---

Steelbeak stepped into the old tower, followed by Megavolt and the two Gosalyns. 'So, kiddo,' he said, 'where's this travelling box?'

The green-jerseyed duckling ran ahead, and waved the rest into the cavernous room. 'Over here!'

As the others arrived, they looked over the phone booth. Megavolt and his Gosalyn looked at each other, while Steelbeak gasped. 'You came in dat?' he asked.

'Yeah,' Gosalyn said. 'What, why're you so spooked out?'

'I've seen dis before,' he replied. 'Except it was a SHUSH agent, "Auntie" Bellum.'

'Auntie Bellum?' Gosalyn asked. 'Who's she?'

'One of the most notorious criminal-es in da woild, kiddo. She's armed wit' the woist in black magic and genuine Louisiana hatred--she wants to toin da clock back to da plantation days of the mid 1800s. Wit' her in da big manor, an' da rest 'o de woild in da fields as slaves.'

'Whoa. Nothing like that Bellum in my world,' Gosalyn said. 'Wait a minute. You said you saw this thing with that Bellum person, right?'

'Yeah. We thought she enchanted a telephone booth or somethin'. She got away before we could get her, though. Blew up a little of our lab, too.'

'It wasn't her, then! It was Dr Bellum from my world!' Gosalyn yelled. 'She must've been testing this thing out! I was right all along!'

'What about?' Megavolt asked, warily eyeing the bouncing duckling.

'It's super-secret SHUSH technology Darkwing had! Keen gear!'

---

Darkwing watched as Dr Bellum returned from the Thunderquack with another gadget. 'This, Darkwing,' she said, 'is a remote retrieval device. It should home in on the TARDAT through the multiple universes and bring it back to this one.'

'How will it find the right one?' Darkwing asked.

'Well,' she answered, 'since I never left any other universes in the TARDAT computer, it should only have the Negaverse, as you called it. I just put in that universe's reality coordinates and the device brings it back from there. Of course, the TARDAT can't move through time or space, so it should rematerialize right there where it was, so stand clear, everyone!'

Darkwing herded the others to a safer part of the lair as Dr Bellum pressed the controls. 'This may take a while to lock on, of course,' she said.

---

Both Gosalyns watched as a FOWL helicopter came up over the tower and lowered a winch. 'Keen gear,' the pink-clad one said. The other had seen this more often.

In front of them, the TARDAT stood on a palette, and Eggmen attached the cables around it. The booth was hoisted up into the waiting copter as Steelbeak listened on his radio. 'Dere,' he said, 'all se-cur-ed. We'll meet back at FOWL HQ an' foither discuss dis.'

The helicopter tilted and swung away from the tower towards the city. Shortly after it did, just as it passed between the four towers suspending the Audubon Bay Bridge over the bay, the aircraft shuddered as lights poured out of its windows. As Gosalyn watched in amazement, a few Eggmen bailed from the apparently stricken copter, floating to the ground just as light burst through the windows from an explosion within.

Steelbeak got back on the radio immediately. 'What's going on up dere?'

The pilot had apparently stayed at his post. 'The thing just exploded, sir! No major damage, but it's gone!'

---

'Huh,' Dr Bellum said as she stared at her control, 'it says that it's already retrieving things, but I don't see any reaction on the site.'

'Very strange,' Darkwing agreed. He pulled out his scanner to watch the dais. 'No trace of anything except--'

The loud smash echoed up from the bridge to the tower, and the ducks inside stared, then went to one of the windows overlooking the bridge. 'Maybe I should have made it less portable like you said,' Dr Bellum said as she looked down at the bridge deck.

In the centre of the bridge, almost perfectly divided over the median, and smashed nearly entirely to bits, was the TARDAT. They could even see what looked like a telephone directory, its pages fluttering in the breeze on their way into the bay itself.

Too softly for anyone to here, Darkwing whispered, 'Gosalyn ... '

* * *

Notes: Sorry this took a while to come out. A lot of things going on here, and a lot going on in the story. And yes, a lot of this is extrapolation. 

Chapter 4 is, of course, underway.


	4. Chapter 4

OPPOSITE RECIPROCAL  
Copyright 2007 by Q Illespont  
All characters are property of their respective owners.

Chapter 4

* * *

Gosalyn sighed as she stared out the windows of Megavolt's electric car. 'Well,' she said, 'I guess Darkwing and those SHUSH guys must've taken it back somehow. They should be coming back anytime now,' she said wistfully with a slight bit of forced hopefullness, a note that Megavolt was all too familiar with. 

'Yeah, he'll be back,' he said as they returned to the Friendly Four headquarters and Gosalyn's home. Steelbeak had taken his own official FOWL car back to his headquarters, so only the three of them trooped into the house.

As they got settled in, Quackerjack gave Megavolt a report. Crime seemed to be on a lower level than in the 'normal' Saint Canard, judging by what Gosalyn had overhead from her father and from the two non-villains here. Still, it was enough to keep them busy--she hadn't even seen the Liquidator the entire time she'd been here so far. The other Gosalyn, she noticed, didn't seem to pay much attention to the crime figures, though, and went to the kitchen.

After the briefing and a few words on Bushroot's reforestation project in Grayson Park, Quackerjack looked over to the green-clad duckling. 'Say, where'd Gosalyn go? I mean, our Gosalyn?'

'She went over there,' Gosalyn said, pointing where the girl was returning from. 'Go ahead and just call her Gosalyn; you said you'd call me "Dark Gosalyn". Why "Dark", anyway?'

'Because that's what we call your world, remember? This is the Negaverse, and you're from the Darkverse,' Megavolt answered.

'But if Negaduck ran this one, why's my world "Dark"?' she asked.

'The same reason this one's called "Nega",' Quackerjack said. He held up two action figures, one in yellow, one in purple. 'See, Negaduck renamed this universe after himself when he took over. And since his equivalent in your world is Darkwing Duck, his universe is the Darkverse. Nega, Dark.'

'Whoa, cool. Da--Darkwing would love to hear about that. How well is he known here, anyway?'

Megavolt sat down and lifted Gosalyn up in his lap, then winced as Gosalyn flinched. 'Um, sorry, force of habit,' he said.

'It's OK,' she replied. 'Still getting used to this place.'

Megavolt relaxed. 'Anyway, Dark Gos, while there's folks--like Steelbeak--who think Darkwing was something Negaduck made up as a symbol of all he stood against, most people think of him as the saviour of Saint Canard. He confronted Negaduck and his gang, the Muddlefoots, and with the Friendly Four--that's us--he fought Negaduck until he snuck away into the portal leading to your world, and chased after.'

'Wow. What really happenned?'

'That's the real verrsion. You should hear the myths!'

'Whoa. So like the folks here love him?'

'Well, if you can call it love,' Megavolt sighed. 'There's some statues, but there's also things like Darkwing Day sales, Darkwing being used in car ads, and so on. Here's an example in today's paper.'

He picked up an ad insert, and showed it to her. Gosalyn saw the familiar purple-caped duck standing and proclaiming great deals on cars. 'Keen gear. They even got his good side.'

'You're not worried about the crass commercialism?' Quackerjack asked. 'I've never liked that.'

'Trust me, if you knew him like I did, you'd know this would just make his day. He's always loved the idea of press coverage!'

The other Gosalyn re-entered. 'I've got dinner going,' she said, and curtsied. 'Dark' Gosalyn still winced at the sight, so familiar and yet so wrong to her. 'And afterward, we'll have milk and cookies!'

'Why're you doing the cooking?' Dark Gosalyn asked. 'I mean, Dad at home does it for the most part.'

'Don't you know how to cook and do the dishes?' she was asked in reply.

'Well, yeah,' she said, then admitted, 'I don't do them often. Never was into that kind of girly stuff. And Dad says it's OK, too.'

She was met with a giggle from the cute duckling. 'That's sweet, having Darkwing Duck baking you cookies.'

'Yeah,' Dark Gosalyn said, then paused, staring ahead. 'Er, it is when he stops by once in a while,' she tried to cover, trying to not look the other girl in the eyes. How'd she figure it out?

'It's almost too disturbing for me,' Megavolt said. 'I guess it makes sense, but ... I've known Negaduck a lot longer. He's the one I imagine. And ... well, you know. It's in the history books, anyway.'

Dark Gosalyn looked back up to the electric rat. 'Know what? I didn't even know my name was universally hated!'

Megavolt and Quackerjack looked at her, then tried to look nonchalant; it seemed to her that the two didn't want to talk about it. 'Come on, spill, guys,' she said.

Tank made his way to the front room. 'I think I'll go over it. I'm sure I can manage it,' he said, and she knew she saw relief in the others' faces when he did. 'She needs to know, in case she were to accidentally cause a scene.'

'Like at the store,' Megavolt said, and walked away to the kitchen after setting her back on her feet. Quackerjack handed the purple duck doll to the other Gosalyn and followed Megavolt; she sighed, hugged the doll, and walked to her room.

The remaining two children sat in the nearby sofa. 'In this universe,' Tank started, 'the name "Mallard" is universally linked to evil, despotism, and all things Negaduck. It's been so even despite L--um, er, Negaduck's own attempts to divorce himself from his given name.'

'Whoa. Kind'a like "Hitler" back home, but even worse?' she asked, staring with morbid fascination--she knew about him, of course, but something about powerful villains got her attention. Of course, she rationalized to herself, she had to know about the enemy.

'Given how our histories diverge, I hesitate to draw any comparisons between the two. Still, it appears that this "Hitler" you mentioned is infamous in your world's history. We can discuss it later.'

'Let's skip the history lesson. Why did the sports store guy object to me putting "Mallard" on my jersey?'

Tank winced, but replied, 'Again, it is a name stained with the past, and with blood. Blood blood blood.'

'Whoa. And why'd your Gosalyn freak out like that?'

'Her name was Mallard, too.'

Gosalyn blinked, then shook her head. 'Lemme get this straight,' she said, 'you're telling me that Negaduck--yellow suit, chainsaw, that guy--had HER as a daughter? How?'

Tank sighed. 'It's a long story. Just ... Negaduck took her in after killing her father and forced her to take his name. We think it was for revenge, but we're not sure why. The others won't tell me, anyway. But she'd always held hope that someday she'd get a better father. And then Darkwing Duck came, and chased Negaduck back to your world. In her eyes, and in the eyes of many people here, Darkwing is the pure hero who can neither tolerate, accomodate, or perpetrate any wrong, or in her case, anything other than the purest good.'

'Hero worship,' Dark Gosalyn said. 'But like way beyond anything normal.' She knew she idolized her own father, but could also see his faults; surely the others should've seen when he was there, too, right?

'Exactly. By the way, how do you know so much about Darkwing?'

'I ... er, run his fan club.' Honest, yet evasive.

'I see.' Tank took his glasses off and polished them, then put them back on. 'So, you expect them to return?'

'Of course I do!' she answered. 'Nothing'd stop Darkwing Duck from getting me back!'

'I see. Still, I think it would be prudent to make our own preparations. We have an appointment to see Steelbeak in his lab tomorrow for the big party, anyway. We should ask the FOWL staff for assistance.'

Dark Gosalyn blinked. 'What big party?' she asked.

Tank looked at her in puzzlement. 'The birthday party. What else did you think?'

She shook her head. 'No, no, my birthday was back in April!'

Tank stared in surprise, then seemed to beam in dawning realization. 'So you do have your birth records!'

'Huh?'

'Gosalyn's birth records were all destroyed. We assigned her tomorrow as a birthday, since that was when she was first adopted. It has special meaning for her.'

'Whoa.' She thought back to when she was adopted, but couldn't remember if they'd had a special celebration of that day. Of course, a lot was precluded from her father's injuries. 'I guess they just kept mine on hand. Maybe I should tell her that.'

'No, don't,' Tank replied. 'We've ... gotten attached to tomorrow.'

'Oh, allright,' she sighed. 'Better get to bed, anyway.' She typically felt more inclined to when she was deciding on the issue; also, she was oddly tired. Time lag, she thought. Waving, she went into the other Gosalyn's bedroom.

---

'DW, you gotta relax,' Launchpad said as he brought in a tray of sandwiches. Around them were shards of glass, twisted metal, and ominously non-blinking electronic components. Pages of the TARDAT's schematics, still dripping from the bay, were scatterred along the floor and walls. 'Besides,' the loyal sidekick continued, 'you're spoiling your lunch--I made these up for all of us, including you.'

Darkwing glared at him, and unclenched his jaw. Launchpad winced as he saw the damage that prompted his comment--Darkwing had been gnawing on the brim of his celebrated hat. 'Launchpad,' Darkwing started, 'I am currently waiting for a mad scientist and a crackpot aviator--no offense there--to put together a smashed teleporter using washed-out plans so they can get my ONE AND ONLY daughter back from an alternate universe. My perilous and prepubescent progeny is practically parsecs away from her panicked parent! To think, my own flesh and blood, torn from my side ... '

'Actually, DW, technically she--'

Darkwing grabbed his sidekick's face and brought him down to eye level. In a low growl that reminded Launchpad more of Negaduck at his worst, Darkwing snarled, 'Do not finish that sentence.' No threat was added. It would only lessen the menace.

Launchpad hurried over to the SHUSH ducks working on the TARDAT itself. 'Um, guys,' he asked, still shaking, 'could you hurry up with that? I think DW's starting to crack.'

'He seems to be taking it hard,' Dr Bellum said. 'I know he loves the idea of a fan club, but this is more than I'd expect.'

'Dr Bellum,' J Gander Hooter said, 'return to your work!' Shocked, Dr Bellum did as Hooter went to Launchpad. 'Relax, Mr McQuack. I ... understand Darkwing's situation.'

'I doubt it,' Launchpad said.

Hooter shrugged, and handed Launchpad a hairdryer, then started working on some sodden pages.

---

'Happy birthday, Gosalyn!'

Even Dark Gosalyn joined in the yell as they stepped into FOWL's headquarters. The birthday girl herself was in an even cuter pink dress, with a shiny new pair of black Mary Janes. Dark Gosalyn herself was wearing her new green jersey; after some discussion with the others, they settled on calling that a birthday present despite the time difference. Megavolt was in his full costume, while Quackerjack and Bushroot had chosen tuxedoes. Steelbeak had selected a dress uniform as well.

Oddly, to Dark Gosalyn, the Liquidator hadn't been seen ever since her arrival in the Negaverse. He hadn't arrived at the combined home/headquarters, and she had only heard that he was busy with other things. Even now, the Friendly Four were limited to the three she'd met so far. She thought back to her first meeting with the watery villain, where he showed unusual interest in her. I wonder if he's further from her, she thought to herself.

Still, the other Gosalyn seemed to be looking for someone else in the crowd. A few Eggmen were on hand, including a slender chicken who seemed to hover near Steelbeak. The group, after a welcome, were already into the cake.

'I swear,' Steelbeak said, 'this cake is the most ex-cell-ente. Who made it?'

'I did,' Megavolt said. 'Was hard to keep it secret--Gos here keeps trying to take over the kitchen.'

Gosalyn--the 'opposite', Dark Gosalyn thought to herself--blushed at that. 'I didn't expect all this over my birthday,' she said.

'But wait, there's more!' Quackerjack said, and went to the door. The rest of them looked over as a monologue started:

'Are you satisfied with your past? Would you like to remove the mark of atrocity from your identity? Why not ... '

Suddenly, and literally, a wave gushed into the room, splashing down near the pink duckling. It reformed into the Liquidator himself, and continued his pitch: ' ... try Liquidator brand legal documents! Watch as they magically erase the curse of the past and restore the dignity and good of the future that is likewise scouring the streets of Saint Canard!'

Dark Gosalyn rolled her eyes at the speech; some things never change. The other Gosalyn, however, squealed in delight and applauded, then oohed as Liquidator extended an arm with a pad of legal documents. Apparently he was able to exert pressure without breaking his water tension, since the papers were still dry. 'Operators are standing by,' he said, and in his other hand offerred the duckling a pen. 'Just sign right here.'

Gosalyn looked over the papers, and gasped. 'This ... says my name's going to be changed?'

'That's right!' Liquidator gushed. 'Nevermore will you be known by the name thrust unfairly upon you by a guardian undeserved and unfit to guide the life of a rock. Now, your destiny will be in your hands. Just sign your new name here.'

Dark Gosalyn managed to work in closest to see the documents. She saw a lot of what seemed to be legalese, and a few things that resembled the adoption papers she saw when Darkwing took her in. She also saw the blank Liquidator was indicating.

The other Gosalyn thought for a few moments, then smiled and reached to scribble in the blank indicated. The Friendly Four and the FOWL agents smiled as they watched, while Dark Gosalyn took a step back, shaking her head. 'No,' she said.'

'What?' the other Gosalyn asked. 'I really miss my ... my old name.' She looked wistful, and marked her initials--her new ones--in the proper place. 'G. B.'

'Gosalyn Bulba.'

---

Launchpad herded Darkwing to the seat in front of the crime monitor. 'Hey, DW,' he said, 'maybe we can find something good on TV to watch!' Pelican's Island was always good for him, he thought, and Darkwing certainly could use something to take his mind off the situation. The SHUSH scientists were still working on the TARDAT, and even to Launchpad's untrained eye, they seemed to be on edge while Darkwing was glowering at them.

'SHUSH issue,' Darkwing said under his breath as he was assisted to the couch and parked in it. He spared a look over his shoulder before the screen flickered to life as Launchpad turned it on. He scowled as the teleporter still stood in wreckage, although he grudgingly admitted to himself that a few items were straighter, and there were more cohesive piles of parts.

Small comfort as he brooded over how Gosalyn had been yanked out of his universe.

He turned his face back to the monitor, and sneered at the first programme, a Pelican's Island rerun.

'Gosh,' Pelican was saying, 'since we got here we've never been able to fix the Manilow and get back to civilization!'

Launchpad laughed nervously and hit the remote. 'Whoops, sorry, saw that one already,' he said to cover up. He flicked through the channels to see what else was there.

The next channel showed an office with a duck hanging for dear life from a black handle while a vixen seemed to fly backwards into a vortex. 'ROSE!' the duck yelled. The girl screamed, reaching for him ... and then a man shimmered in behind her, grabbed her, and shimmered out, just before the breach collapsed.

The scene cut to apparently the same office, but seemingly from another side. The vixen from earlier was pounding on the wall, screaming. 'Take me back! Take me back! I can't leave him! Take me back!' Her mascara was running from her tears. 'I need to go back to my world ... '

'Whoops ... ' Launchpad said as he hit more buttons on the remote. 'Never got into those foreign-language things.'

Another channel change brought up what looked like a Movie of the Week. It showed a young girl wandering in a rain-drenched city, with a stirring voice-over narration. 'Her parents abandoned her. Her relatives died. Even the Boy Scouts lost track as she crossed the street. A duck on her own in a hostile world.'

Another channel change. This one was a public service announcement. 'Remember, parents, always keep an eye on your children.'

And another. 'For the best Father's Day deals, shop at your local Waddle Mart.'

And another. A round-headed boy was holding a leash. Oddly, the grass was in a side view. 'SNEAKY! COME HOME!'

And another. A music video channel. 'And he gave her butterf--'

Launchpad hurriedly turned off the television. 'OK, maybe there's a crime wave we can find ... ' Darkwing just gritted his teeth.

---

The two Gosalyns were led further into FOWL headquarters. 'I hope your guys over there can do the trick,' Steelbeak said. 'If not, we've got quite a few bright boids here. Youse people can talk to Morg about your little situation.'

'We'll see,' Dark Gosalyn said, and looked in the room. 'Whoa ... keen gear,' she said as she stared in amazement.

She had never seen the SHUSH analogue, aside from a few outside facilities, but if it was anything like this, she deeply envied her father the ability to see this anywhere near regularly. It looked just like she thought a super-secret spy lab should--white-coated technicians bustling, computers all over the place processing data, and what looked like rows and rows of experiments.

What she didn't expect was the woman approaching her. Instead of the neat white of lab workers, or the crisp yellow and red uniforms of Eggmen, this woman was dressed in a mechanic's overalls. And the mechanic in question must have been working on an oil leak on wheels, as the overalls bore all the signs of either frequent work or infrequent washing. The woman was barely neater than the suit; she seemed to have some white feathers, but much of her was grimy. Still, Gosalyn could see the smile on her face, like the one she herself would wear after several hours on a muddy field.

What got her attention was the streak of white through the messy hair, as well as the embroidered namepatch, 'Morg'. 'Hi, guys,' she said, and wiped her hand with a rag before extending it. She couldn't tell if the hand was cleaner afterward, or the rag was. 'Morg Macawbre.'

Dark Gosalyn still stared in disbelief. Morg saw this, and hesitated. 'What, did I miss something?' She started looking over herself as if to find something. 'I didn't leave my pliers clamped on the beltloop again, did I?'

'Um, no, it's nice to meet you, ma'am,' Dark Gosalyn replied. 'I'm Gosalyn M--' She then looked around, and sighed. Took her long enough to start using 'Mallard' after she was adopted, and now she had to avoid it. This stinks, she thought to herself; out loud, she said, 'Er, I'm Dark Gosalyn.'

Morg looked at her, then to the birthday girl. 'I can see that, yeah.' She leaned to whisper to Steelbeak, 'Are you sure it's safe to bring her here?'

'We're trying to get her back to her own universe,' Megavolt said. 'The Darkverse.'

'Alternate universe?' Morg asked. 'I never believed in that mystic stuff.'

Dark Gosalyn asked, 'What? Since when's Morgana Macawbre been not mystic?'

'Since I was born, kid. And how'd you know my first name?'

'Um ... well, there's another of you in my universe,' she replied. 'Wait a minute. Why're you here?'

Morg frowned. 'I work here. Did ever since FOWL was founded. Always wanted to be a cop, but was a lot better at making cop cars.'

'Weird,' Dark Gosalyn said. 'You're a good guy in my universe, too!'

The other Gosalyn giggled and hugged her. 'See, guys? Not everyone there is morally opposite!'

Dark Gosalyn smiled nervously. 'Er, well, so can you help us out there?'

Morg thought for a bit. 'Well, alternate reality physics isn't my department, to be honest. But I'll see what my guys can do. Wanna get some lab time, Reggie?'

'Sure,' Bushroot said.

'And Gosalyn,' Morg continued, 'come by tomorrow night. I'm working on your birthday present, but it won't be done by then, OK?'

'Sure,' she said as the rest were led back out.

---

The lamp in the lonely lighthouse shone over the waters. Long automated, it shone on in its ancient mission to guide ships to the safe harbour of Audubon Bay.

A mad cackle punctuated its more recent purpose, to house Saint Canard's third most dangerous criminal: Megavolt. The owners of the lighthouse knew better than to interfere--and reasoned that if nothing else, Megavolt would do his best to keep the power flowing to the huge lightbulb in it, and had humanely chosen to not send employees to evict him. They did inhumanely choose to lay them off, but business is business.

Still, this left Megavolt time to sit back and relax. He got into his favourite sofa, stretched his back and popped his spine back into shape, and reached out--

And then the telephone rang. Meagavolt tried to ignore it, but it kept ringing. Sighing and reminding himself to steal a caller ID unit, he picked it up. 'Hello, you've reached Megavolt, Saint Canard's most electrifying supervillain!' he said.

'Hey, there you are!' the other voice said. 'Listen, it's Launchpad. I need to ask ya a favour!'

'Launchpad? Hmm, I think I know that name ... I know! You're that big guy who always hangs out with Darkwing Duck!'

'That's right! Thanks for noticin'.'

Megavolt scowled. 'You're not trying to arrest me over the telephone, are you?'

'No no no,' Launchpad said. 'See, I was kind'a wondering ... aren't you planning any major capers? Breakin' and enterin'? Robbin' a few banks?'

'Well, I did, but I decided to take the day off. Besides, Saint Canard Sci Fi Cinema's got a marathon going of Doctor Quack. Took me a while to get used to the Tenth Quack, but he's pretty good.'

'Come on, Megavolt! This is serious!'

'I know! They're finally showing the third season! Isn't it great?' He'd been waiting since reading about it online. 'I've heard so much about who they've got with the Quack now. And now I'll get to see it from the comfort of MY OWN LIVING ROOM! HAHAHAHAHA!'

'Um, Megsy ... that's nice, but shouldn't--'

Megavolt winced as he heard another voice in the background, an all too familiar one. 'Launchpad! Just what are you doing on the phone?' Only two ducks could sound so similar, and if this was Launchpad calling, it probably meant that this was his pal Darkwing.

'Er, hey, DW!' the sidekick tried to cover. 'I was just, er, grilling Megavolt for information on His Big Bank Robbery. Right, Megsy?' He sounded to the villain like he was pleading.

A struggle suggested the phone was snatched away. 'Well?' he was asked, this time directly by Darkwing.

'Hey, don't drag me into this,' he answered. 'I'm just watching TV tonight.'

'See,' Darkwing said. 'Now will you CONCENTRATE ON WHAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING?!' Megavolt winced at the scream and the slam of the telephone being abruptly hung up.

'Sheesh. Probably picked a good night to stay home,' he said as he flicked on the television. Better than tangling with a demented duck.

---

Dark Gosalyn yawned and stretched. Another day ending and still in the Negaverse. She'd enjoyed the party at FOWL, and she couldn't help but smile as the other Gosalyn opened her gifts. She'd also talked Megavolt into a quick run to the FOWL gift shop to get a birthday card and an Eggman plush, which the birthday girl gushed over cutely.

Now they were back home, with the other Gosalyn putting away her gifts. Quite a few were dolls, with a few dresses. Precicely the things Dark Gosalyn dreaded getting at any time, although the chances of that had decreased after some time with her father. Still, it seemed the girl was hanging onto a copy of Liquidator's contract. It was a hard shock to see the name Bulba there, but it made sense, she kept telling herself. After all, everyone here was opposites. Megavolt's the leader of a superhero group, J Gander Hooter was an international terrorist, Tank was an intellectual. It stood to reason that the fearsome Taurus Bulba from her world would be kinder here.

'Well, that was fun, I guess,' she said. 'So, what's on TV tonight? Any good horror movies?'

Quackerjack winced. 'That stuff will rot your brain.'

'Awww,' she replied. 'I just hope Dad remembers to record the Doctor Quack marathon tonight. I wanna see if the Daleks come back and vaporize people again.'

'Doctor who?' Megavolt asked, scratching his head confusedly.

Dark Gosalyn sighed. 'Never mind. I think I'll go to bed. You got a sleeping bag or something?' Quackerjack fetched one for her from the closet, eliciting a wince from her--this one featured an almost disgustingly cute pink bunny on the front. 'It's a good thing all my friends are in another universe,' she muttered to herself, and walked into the other Gosalyn's bedroom.

Inside, she saw it was dark; the blinds were open, but it was night. There was enough light from the city for her to see the other Gosalyn on the bed, curled up under the covers. She sighed as she looked her over. 'Kind'a cute,' she thought, then shook her head to dismiss the thought. 'This place is getting to me.'

She unrolled the sleeping bag and crawled in, then looked up at the bed. She saw the contract copy on the nightstand, but the little girl had cuddled something else up in the bed. Dark Gosalyn yawned, leaned back, and settled down for sleep.

She then fidgeted her thumbs as she heard sniffling from the bed above her. Sighing again, she sat up and looked to see the other Gosalyn sobbing, still curled up. 'You allright there?' she asked.

The other girl gasped ('Way too girly,' Dark Gosalyn thought to herself), and started back. When she did, Dark Gosalyn could see what she was holding--the earlier Darkwing Duck doll. 'Um, I'm sorry,' the cute girl said. 'I ... um, I ... '

'It's OK,' Dark Gosalyn sighed, leaning against the bed. 'I've done that quite a few times, too.' She chuckled as she looked at the doll. 'You miss him, don't you?'

'Well, don't you?'

She nodded. 'Yeah, I do. But there's something I think can help you out.'

The other Gosalyn perked up a little. 'What is it?'

'A lullabye from both my dad and my grandpa,' Dark Gosalyn answered. She sighed as the other girl shrank back. 'Remember, it's opposite of whoever you had,' she said resignedly. 'Like how your dad's different from how he was in my world.'

'But he was so good. How could he be anything but that?' the other girl asked.

Dark Gosalyn shook her head. 'I need to get you some good sci-fi or horror movies,' she muttered. Out loud, she said, 'Remember how Darkwing's not like how Negaduck was? Opposites.'

'But you're not evil. Why would Daddy be evil? He saved Saint Canard so many times, and he adopted me, and everything was so nice ... '

Dark Gosalyn reached to hug the other duckling as she broke down in tears. 'I miss my daddy, I miss Darkwing,' she wailed as she sobbed into the green jersey. Dark Gosalyn could only just hold on and try to hug her as reassuringly as her father had for her during darker times.

After what felt like too long, the other Gosalyn finally let go. 'I'm sorry,' she repeated. 'I didn't mean to wake you up or cry on you.'

'It's OK,' Dark Gosalyn said, trying to think of something else to say.

Gosalyn broke the silence. 'How'd you meet Darkwing Duck, anyway?'

Dark Gosalyn sighed as she sat on the bed. 'Without him, I'd ... well, I'd be dead. It's a cliche, I know, but he really saved my life. And then adopted me. It's a long story ... my natural parents both died, and my grandpa took me in afterward. I lived in his apartment off his lab.' She sighed as she leaned forward, remembering. 'I thought that would be the happiest time in my life.'

'What happenned?'

Dark Gosalyn's face visibly soured as she was reminded of just what happenned next. 'He invented a great machine. And some crooks wanted to steal it, so they ... ' She swallowed, and held the comforter on the bed tighter in her fingers. Even with the years that have passed, the memory was still unpleasant. 'They took him away. They found his body a few days later. They never let me see it.'

'That's terrible,' the other Gosalyn said, shuddering.

'It gets worse. The same crooks tried to kidnap me. They had to lie low for a while, but they found me at the orphanage, and were about to get me in their van when Darkwing came and rescued me. And we've been together ever since.'

Dark Gosalyn sighed and looked at the little girl--she couldn't help apply the label despite being just about the same herself. 'What about you?' she asked. 'How'd you end up with Negaduck and then Megavolt?'

'Well,' she said, 'it started with my first mommy and daddy.' She sat up, hugging her legs to her chest. 'They loved me a lot, and were so kind ... and then they were killed. My grandfather took me in afterwards. He was a mean man. He ... always said I didn't have enough spirit, and kept saying he'd hurt me if I wasn't the little girl I was supposed to be. I think he was a bad man, too. He wanted me to help him hurt people. He built all sorts of things that hurt people. I know he gave some to Negaduck, too. That's why Negaduck was mad when Daddy beat him.'

Dark Gosalyn tried to sort out her conflicting feelings. She knew her grandfather was a good man, and loved her dearly. But she also knew that this was the Negaverse, and this Gosalyn's grandfather must have been opposite of her own. Bracing herself, she said, 'Wow, kind'a like me. So, you were ... adopted by ... him, right?'

'That's right. That's why I picked that as my new name when Liquidator finished his paperwork. He's the chief judge here.' She smiled and leaned back on her bed. 'I've been calling myself that since Darkwing rescued me, though.'

'Good thing we both met him.'

'Yeah.' The girl reached over and hugged her into the bed. 'Thanks for coming here. I'm glad I met you.'

Dark Gosalyn tried to resist, but couldn't find it in her to shove the other girl away, and resigned herself to it. 'It's OK.'

'I miss my daddy,' the other Gosalyn said, and Dark Gosalyn could feel more tears seeping into her new jersey. 'The Friendly Four are great, but ... I miss my daddy. He was strong.' She squeezed tighter, and looked up to the startled Dark Gosalyn's face. 'You feel strong, too.'

'Well,' she admitted, 'I do exercise a lot. Are you gonna be OK?' She tried to coax her double's arms away, but she held on tight.

'Don't go,' the other girl whispered as she hugged.

Dark Gosalyn sighed; still, she did feel for the kid. Especially since the great years she spent with Darkwing, she had to spend with Negaduck. 'What if I sang you a song my grandpa and my dad taught me?' she asked. 'It's a lullabye I liked.' She normally didn't like to admit it, but she'd always loved the song. It reminded her of the two most important people she'd ever known.

'A lullabye?' the other Gosalyn asked. She looked to Dark Gosalyn, who nodded. 'I don't think I've heard one since Daddy ... Daddy ... '

Dark Gosalyn smiled. 'Got her,' she thought. 'Here's how it goes.' She cleared her throat, and started singing. The other girl listened raptly to the words long written on Dark Gosalyn's heart:

'Close your eyes, little girl blue  
Inside of you like a rainbow  
Yellow blue, red blue purple too  
Blue purple and green, then the yellow.'

'Pretty,' the other girl said.

'That's from my grandpa. Dad then gave me this part:

'Rest your head, little girl blue  
Come paint your dreams on your pillow  
I'll be near, to chase away fear  
So sleep now and dream till tomorrow.'

She looked and saw the other Gosalyn resting her head on her pillow, her eyes closing. Now released, she climbed down and knelt by the bed, leaning against it as she whispered the last lines again.

'I'll be near, to chase away fear  
So sleep now and dream till tomorrow.'

She leaned forward, and the other Gosalyn settled in. 'Thanks,' she said, and drifted to sleep.

---

Notes: During the television section, the first show is a reference to an episode of Doctor Who, 'Doomsday'. The dialogue and scenery are similar to what happens in one scene, but are not word-for-word. Still, it was borrowed from there. The music video features a scrap from Bob Carlisle's 'Butterfly Kisses', before Launchpad figured that a sentimental tearjerker would probably not help.

Also, after it's reasserted, I do start referring to the 'normal' Gosalyn as 'Dark Gosalyn', just like they suggested. She's the visitor to their world, not the Negaverse Gosalyn.


	5. Chapter 5

OPPOSITE RECIPROCAL  
Copyright 2008 by Q Illespont  
All characters are property of their respective owners

* * *

Chapter 5

Darkwing fumed as he stared down at J Gander Hooter. He'd respected the man for years, and he'd known that respect was honestly mutual; Hooter was one of the few people who really appreciated all of the things he'd done in the name of crimefigting.

That respect, he felt, was what was barely holding him back from tossing the man, his chief scientist, their project, and even himself out of the bridge tower and into the bay.

'You're telling me that you need to drag that off to another place,' he snarled. 'I've been letting you dismantle everything in my lab. It'll take half an hour to reconstruct the Ratcatcher. And you're telling me you need more equipment?'

'Your hideout is quite well stocked,' Hooter said as soothingly as he could. 'But bear in mind, Darkwing, that your lair specialises in criminology and forensics. Ballistics computers and chemanalysis rigs can only go so far when dealing with 0-dimensional chaos neutrinos. We need the SHUSH lab to finish our work.'

'I can have the Thunderquack running in a few minutes, once I get the turbines back from Dr Bellum,' Launchpad added. 'And the fly-by-wire computer. Also, um, you always tell me about the landing gear, tho I don't know why ... '

'Fine,' Darkwing spat. 'You head over. I'll be there.'

---

The two Gosalyns walked along through the park. A new day had come, Gosalyn's 'birthday' had passed. Morg had said her birthday surprise would come later in the day, which left the girls with nothing much to do until then; the adults were off fighting crime and otherwise attending to the business of Saint Canard. All around they could hear children playing, teenagers chatting.

'So,' Dark Gosalyn asked, 'what do you usually do during the day?'

'Well,' the other girl answered, 'when I'm not at school or doing homework, I just help out around the house. Make sure everything's clean, do the dishes, that sort of thing. What about you?'

As Dark Gosalyn opened her beak to respond, she saw a soccer ball rolling at her. She let a smile form before answering, 'Just stuff like this.'

As the ball reached her feet, she started a quick routine of dribbling around the other girl. The kids who had come to retrieve the ball stood nearby as they watched her work with the ball. Seeing her audience, Dark Gosalyn smirked, and bounced the ball from one foot to another as she planned a fitting finish. Once she had it in mind, she put it in motion. From foot, to knee, then a bump off her head ... and then a backflip and a kick, and the ball was sent in a fast arc towards a tree, the fountain, and then righ in front of a startled cat standing near the goal. 'The Gos-Shot,' as she liked to call it.

The kids who had come gushed about the amazing pass, which left Dark Gosalyn with a wry smile. And the time to get up; she remembered that the landing needed some work, although the fancy trick itself worked quite well at distracting most spectators. She dusted herself off and smiled, then continued on with the other Gosalyn.

'So you're like their maid?' she asked. 'What about video games or comic books or just playing out here?'

The other Gosalyn shook her head. 'Those things rot your brain, Quackerjack said. They're what drove him out of business in the first place. Besides, I need to do something, and it helps me for when I marry Tank when we get older.'

Dark Gosalyn stopped still. 'Marry Tank?'

'Yeah,' the other girl said. 'we've known each other since Negaduck had his hideout on Avian Way, next to Tank's ... family.' She shudderred, and Dark Gosalyn thought for a bit on what might be getting to her. 'He's not like the other Muddlefoots, as you probably know.'

'How unlike them?' Dark Gosalyn asked. 'I mean, they're sort of--'

A shotgun blast interrupted her question, and Dark Gosalyn dragged the other girl down to the park's path while she looked around for the source. She soon saw it: walking in, from a different entrance, were two birds in black leathers. One was a tall skinny female, judging by her fashion, and had fired the shotgun. The other was a portly male, at a guess, and she saw he had a large pack on his back, with a hose that led to a nozzle in his hands. 'Well, for starters,' the tall woman said, 'Tank would always refuse to finish his dinner. And that's after Herb made sure it was extra tasty!'

Dark Gosalyn just stared as she realized that she was staring at the Negaverse versions of Binky and Herb Muddlefoot.

'That's right,' Herb said. 'So we had to treat our better son, Honker, to the good stuff. And wouldn't ya know it, he's growing up just like his old man!'

Binky then smiled as she looked at the two girls; the rest of the people in the park had already fled screaming. 'Why, look, Herb dear. It's that sweet Gosalyn girl that Lord Negaduck was taking care of.'

'It is?' he asked. 'Oh, goodie. We've always wanted to see what you were like ... '

Binky giggled. Dark Gosalyn tought that while her normal Binky was disturbing, this one was hitting some of the same points while also being psychotic. She worked the action of her gun and took aim. 'Lord Negaduck said we couldn't, but at this point I don't think he'd mind if we had you and your new friend over for dinner ... '

Herb chuckled and let off a plume of flame from his weapon--flamethrower, of course, Dark Gosalyn realized. 'You did cheat us out of our Darkwing Burgers, but we can have some Cajun-style little girls!'

Both girls tried to back away as both Muddlefoots licked their beaks and advanced ...

---

Darkwing snarled as his Ratcatcher roared through the streets. The Thunderquack had been rebuilt, and he had seen it soar on towards SHUSH Headquarters without him. Carrying the TARDAT pieces and the SHUSH team had left no room in the plane for himself.

That, and he really needed to get away from Hooter and Bellum before he strangled them.

He'd been patient at first when he heard Gosalyn had been sent to the Negaverse; he knew there were responsible superheroes there who would jump at the chance to keep her safe. He even found a little delight in anticipating her reaction to the Negaverse's own Gosalyn. But as time and misfortune kept adding up, he started growing impatient. A brief visit was one thing, but then the only gate had been destroyed, and he couldn't stop thinking of his daughter held on the other side of reality from him.

He couldn't stand it, and the stress was pushing his temper harder than he could control, despite all of his training in emotional stability. And now he had to trust that the SHUSH lab could replace whatever was still broken in the machine.

He gunned the engine. A police car pulled up alongside him, and he could vaguely hear the officer yelling something about speed. He turned and snarled at the cop; the officer paled and faded back.

He glared up ahead, and saw a police roadblock. It looked like a perimeter; their focus was in, not on him. A couple of officers who were on duty to keep the public out took a look and moved towards him, but he ignored them and roared past.

---

Dark Gosalyn dragged the other Gosalyn behind her as shotgun blasts roared out. She remembered from her games that the shotgun was typically longer-ranged than the flamethrower, and desperately hoped that carried over to real life as she ducked behind a cement garbage can.

'Come on, kids!' Herb yelled out, punctuating it with another stream of napalm that landed in a tree. 'It won't hurt much.'

Binkie giggled and sent a shotgun blast at the park's slide, perforating it. 'We'll just tie you to a stake and roast you over a nice hot fire. And I've got the perfect seasoning for you and your new friend!'

Gosalyn held onto the other girl. 'I know the Friendly Four will be here soon,' she said. Dark Gosalyn noticed that she seemed a bit more confident than she would be waiting for her father. Then again, with four heroes, maybe it's easier to think that one would show up at some point.

The rattle of pellets against their shelter brought her back to the situation. It seemed to be a random shot, though; she could hear the Muddlefoots still taunting them to come out of hiding. Dark Gosalyn sighed, then saw something. In the panic as the other kids had fled the playground, their soccer ball had rolled away, and was resting against a tree about ten yards away.

Ten long yards. 'Dang it,' she whispered, 'I could do something if I could get to that.'

Before she could do anything, Gosalyn had run off in the opposite direction, and yelled out. 'Mrs Muddlefoot!' Dark Gosalyn winced and pulled her hair in frustration at how blatantly stupid this was.

Indeed, Binkie turned, and sneered at the little girl. 'Oh, there you are. Where's your friend?'

'She had to run away, Mrs Muddlefoot,' Gosalyn answered, and Dark Gosalyn noticed her voice was further away; she looked, and saw that Gosalyn was slowly moving farther away from her, and from the ball while talking. 'But what kind of seasoning do you want to use on me?'

Evil or no, Binkie was still Binkie. 'Ooh, we've bought a nice bottle of apple-honey sauce. I've been so eager to try it on a slow roasted little duckling like you!'

'Would that work better on me if I'm alive, or if I'm dead?' Gosalyn asked.

'Good question,' Herb responded.

'I'm sure I'd taste better if I was slowly cooked,' Gosalyn answered. Dark Gosalyn winced at how the discussion was turning out--Gosalyn was stalling for time by trying to convince them to roast her alive! They didn't even try that in 'They Fed on Earthlings II: Just Desserts'!

Still, it was buying time for both Gosalyn to not get shot to death, and Dark Gosalyn to get to that ball. Looking over her shoulder, she saw the two cannibals nearly drooling over the prospect of either slaughtering Gosalyn, or taking her home to cook alive. She had to work fast. Off the foot, knee, head ... and a backflip ...

The sound of sneaker punting leather got the Muddlefoots' attention, and the nature of the Gos-Shot meant that they had a second warning as the soccer ball bounced off the first tree. Binkie sneered, aimed, and let off a blast of pellets, shredding the ball into scrap; Herb swung his flamethrower in the direction that the ball had come from. 'There's your friend, Gosalyn sweetie! You won't roast alone!'

'She's even coming to join you,' Herb said.

Indeed, Dark Gosalyn was charging the two, and snagged the destroyed soccer ball. She charged at Herb and shoved the tatterred remains into the barrel, then ducked down to slide between his legs. 'Roast this!' she yelled.

Binkie followed her and tried to bring her gun to bear, but it struck Herb in the side. Herb staggerred and pulled the trigger on his weapon, and as Dark Gosalyn crouched to wait for the spray ... nothing came out.

Herb looked at his nozzle confusedly. 'Darn, darn, darn. Why won't the napalm come out?' He held down the trigger, then felt the trembling in the weapon. It felt as if the napalm was trying to gush out in a deadly plume, but was being blocked in. 'Binkie, what's wrong with this thing?'

As Dark Gosalyn shooed Gosalyn away, Binkie looked at the nozzle. 'Why, dear, that sweet girl blocked the nozzle. The napalm's backing up and I'm sure that's going to cause an explosion at this rate.'

Herb chuckled. 'Whew. Thought it was something I did. Wait ... you did say "explosion", right?'

'Well, right.'

'Uh oh ... '

---

Reginald Bushroot, PhD, stared around himself at the hostile police perimeter. 'You've got it wrong, I was just trying to get some groceries!'

This time, the 'criminal' (he never even wanted to be a criminal!) was being honest. He had been in the gardening section of Waddle-Mart, looking for some treats, when a young girl ran through and gotten tangled up in him. His disguise fell off, he ran, the police were called, all the Code Anvil signs went off (who lets their kids walk off with an anvil salesman, anyway?), and now here he was with his 'hostage' still tied up in his trunk. 'Just give me some time and let me get out, OK? I wasn't doing anything to you!' he yelled over the screaming of the girl.

'Release the hostage!' was his response from the police. Their negotiator hadn't arrived yet, obviously. 'Let her go or we will fire!'

'You do that, and you'll kill her!' Bushroot yelled back. Bullets were painful, but survivable for him; ducks tended to die messily when shot.

'I said--hey, get that costumed freak out of here!'

'Costumed freak?' Bushroot asked, then groaned. Things can only get worse here, since that silly masked mallard was now coming on scene. Maybe he can at least throw enough confusion around that he can escape, untangle the child who was now biting him, and get out of there.

But where's the blue smoke? No smoke, no opening speech, just the all-too-familiar roar of the Ratcatcher's engine as it sped closer, and apparently through the circle. 'Stand back!' he yelled, holding a leaf to the child's beak to push it away.

Darkwing reached and grabbed Bushroot without braking, then slammed him roughly onto the bill-shaped fender on the front of the bike. 'Let her go, Bushroot.'

'Or what?' Bushroot asked. 'I've been--'

Darkwing cut him off by yanking his arms hard, drawing a pained yelp from the mutant. 'Hey, what are you doing?' Bushroot could only watch, though, as Darkwing tied his arms to the handlebars of his bike, leaving him sprawled on the fender. 'Let me go!'

'Let go of the girl,' Darkwing growled. 'Or die.'

'What do you mean?' Bushroot yelled. He shook as the bike skidded to a halt, apparently to turn, and winced as the reaccelleration jabbed the tip of the fender into his belly. 'You don't kill people, anyway!'

Darkwing only answered by gunning the engine even harder, and Bushroot turned to stare ahead; so did his unwanted hostage. Both screamed as they saw the rapidly approaching wall of the Saint Canard Refinery, with its gallons of fuel inside. 'You'll kill all of us, you psycho!' he screamed.

'Release the girl,' Darkwing snarled. 'No arguing.'

Bushroot turned to stare at Darkwing, gulped, and turned back to stare at the onrushing doom. He screamed again, and the jolt through his body had finally untangled him, letting the girl drop away and into the sidecar. 'There, you see? Girl gone, hostage crisis over, STOP THE BIKE!'

Darkwing frowned, and steered away from flaming death. He pulled a machete from his cape and swung twice, cutting Bushroot free and leaving him to fall by the wayside as well as he roared off into the night, leaving the former scientist in the street. Bushroot looked at his stumps, regrew his hands, and ran away as quickly as he could.

---

Gosalyn ran towards the park exit, into the waiting arms of Quackerjack. 'I knew you'd come,' she said as she hugged her guardian tightly.

'Where's Dark Gosalyn and the Muddlefoots?' he asked. The policeman next to him put on his binoculars ... then yelled and ducked as an explosion shook the ground under them.

Gosalyn pointed at the rising flames and the plumes of smoke from it. 'She was over there.'

A few moments later, two birds landed roughly in front of the crimefighters. The policeman quickly cuffed the severely singed Muddlefoots and proceeded with searching them for more weapons. 'Looks like they were at the centre of the blast,' he said. 'You said your other friend was there?'

'Yeah,' Gosalyn said. 'She needed me to distract them, so I did, and then I ran away after she did something to Mr Muddlefoot's weapon.'

Quackerjack opened his bill to ask something, but before he could, a somewhat familiar scream was heard. The three looked up, and saw one more smoking trail coming at them, landing right behind Quackerjack on the pavement. He rushed over to pull the heap up from the ground, and shook it out to reveal a smouldering Dark Gosalyn. 'Are you all right,' he asked.

'Well done,' was her reply.

---

Darkwing stormed into the SHUSH lab, shoving a random scientist aside. 'Well?' he asked.

'What kept ya, DW?' Launchpad asked. 'We got here an hour ago!'

'Distractions,' Darkwing said as he flicked a few leaves off his cape. 'So, what's the status?'

'It's just great, Darkwing!' Dr Bellum gushed. 'While you were ... er, distracted, we were able to get the rest of the equipment we needed here! We should be ready to go in just a few minutes.'

'That's great!' Darkwing yelled out. He leapt with joy into Bellum's arms. 'When can we go? When? When? Whenwhenwhenwhenwhen--'

Bellum dropped the duck. 'Right ... now, actually.'

Darkwing quickly looked around the room, and saw the gleaming TARDAT. He rushed over to it, threw the door open, and grunted as he tried to cram inside. 'Dr Bellum, you really need to learn about ergonomics,' he grumbled as he forced himself into the diminutive cockpit of the craft.

'What about me, DW?' Launchpad asked. 'Aren't you taking me with?'

'LP, much as I'd love to, I'm lucky that I can bring my costume with, considering how this thing's designed. What do I do again, Dr Bellum?'

'Just lift the handset and dial 000.'

Darkwing yanked the handset up from its cradle and held it to his head as he stabbed at the 0 button. As the voice started speaking, he stared blankly at Dr Bellum. 'Is the same voice used on all phones?'

She nodded ... and the room exploded as he left.

---

As Quackerjack drove the ducklings back, he heard Morg calling out over the radio. Dark Gosalyn couldn't suppress a wince at its appearance: it looked like a rubber ducky in a police uniform.

'Hey, Megsy, Quacky, anyone got the kids?' the scientist asked.

'Yeah, I do,' Quackerjack answered. 'What's going on?'

'Get back to the lab now!' she yelled, then cut the connection. They stared at each other, but Quackerjack shrugged and steered his car on.

Eventually, they reached FOWL headquarters again; Dark Gosalyn wondered if she'd ever see more of the city than this, Gosalyn's house, and the streets in between. She also knocked the last bits of soot from her jersey; explosions always tended to leave that, as well as lingering aches and pains. At least she was far enough from the exploding flamethrower that she wasn't killed in the blast. 'What do they have here?' she asked.

They were led in past the security post; the duty officer handed Quackerjack a note. 'Down in the lab?' he asked aloud, then went on to Morg's laboratory. They opened the doors, and saw Morg, some FOWL Eggmen, and ... a telephone booth.

Dark Gosalyn stared at the booth, then took off at a run towards it. The others in the lab stepped aside as the door opened ... and Darkwing Duck sprang out from inside.

And promptly landed on his onrushing daughter, stopping her rush with a double grunt. 'Gosalyn?' he asked as he started getting up, looking from one duckling to another. He then smiled, and scooped Dark Gosalyn up in his arms. 'There you are! I've been worried sick over where you went!'

Dark Gosalyn giggled and hugged her father tightly. 'I knew you'd be,' she said, then looked at him. 'You never told me you'd been here before!'

'Well, now you know why I was so glad to see you at Honker's birthday party,' he responded. 'So, young lady, what've you been up to here in the poor unsuspecting Negaverse?'

'Well,' she started, then paused to try to sort out everything that had been going on. 'I clobbered some FOWL Eggmen, Honker here used me as a human shield, I woke up in a frilly pink dress, the Friendly Four here told me you're like a superhero legend, and I blew up the Muddlefoots.'

'Somehow I figured explosions would figure in--wait, did you say "legend"?' Darkwing looked over to Quackerjack and Gosalyn, then to Morg and her Eggmen. Most nodded; Darkwing smirked with satisfaction as it seemed one Eggman had made a bet against him, and was reluctantly paying it off to his awestruck partner. 'I see ... even President's Day sales?'

'Nope,' Dark Gosalyn said. 'Darkwing Day sales.'

'Wow,' he replied, awestruck. 'Maybe we need to do some research into the differences between the Negaverse and our world, Gos.' He then hmmed as his hand brushed over her back. 'For one, in this world adults are more likely to fall for your cute act to give you stuff.' He then looked at it. '"Dark Gosalyn"?'

She chuckled. 'They insisted on calling me that so they don't get me mixed up with theirs. Pretty cool, huh? Gonna keep this.'

'You should give it back, you know.'

'They gave it to me after my own stuff was trashed when Megavolt did that stun-bolt thing to get rid of Honker here,' she answered. 'Besides, at least they were willing to let me get my name printed across the back.'

Morg smiled as she watched the reunion, and made her way over to Quackerjack and Gosalyn. 'Don't think I forgot you either, Gos,' she said, and placed a call over her radio. 'Open bay 2.'

Gosalyn stared at Morg as she waited. She saw yellow warning lights start up around what looked like any other secured door in the lab, and moved closer to Quackerjack. The jester watched as well, and finally even Darkwing and Dark Gosalyn turned to look at the flashing lights. 'What's going on?' Darkwing asked.

'It's my birthday gift for Gosalyn--the real one, that is,' Morg replied. 'That is, I mean the real Gosalyn, not a real gift. Well, the gift is real. Um, well, that other Gosalyn is real, too. Oh, just send him in!'

The other ducks watched as the doors opened ... and a steady stomp echoed from within. They stared as a shape started forming in silhouette, and as it approached they saw other lights, most notably a laser as it seemed to scan the ground. They watched the reflected dot move up, and alight on Gosalyn, who shivered in Quackerjack's arms.

Darkwing and Dark Gosalyn stared at the oncoming form, and both winced. 'This can't be real,' Dark Gosalyn said.

'What, Gos?' Darkwing asked.

A gush of smoke billowed from the door, blowing random notes around the lab as the shape finally stepped out. Darkwing and Dark Gosalyn stared in horror; Darkwing dropped his daughter, but also pushed her behind his cape. A grunt behind them suggested that Quackerjack and Gosalyn had a similar reaction. They stared at the monstrosity in front of them, then turned to the beaming Morg. Standing before them was a towering construct, familiar yet not for all of them. Armour covered most of him, with only glimpses of wiring and possible purple fur underneath. The laser was mounted on one of the horns that rose above his head. Unlike earlier, these horns seemed more to support and, apparently, guide a rack of large missiles; Dark Gosalyn could swear she could see the seeking head in each tip focussing where the little dot was. Gleaming on the monster's arms were triple-barrelled Gatling-style machineguns, the ammo feeds flexing slightly as he stepped. It seemed that Morg had a choice for the most part between weapons and armour, and selected both.

The tall mechanic beamed, gesturing to the monster before them. 'Gosalyn, here's your birthday gift: your old daddy, Taurus Bulba!' she yelled.

* * *

Notes: Sorry about the long wait. Work got a little different, and so on. Hopefully chapter 6 doesn't take as long --QI


	6. Chapter 6

OPPOSITE RECIPROCAL  
Copyright 2008 by Q Illespont  
All characters are property of their respective owners  
Chapter 6

* * *

Darkwing gulped as he stared at the mechanical monstrosity marching through the room. He remembered the haunting last words that Bulba had told him when they last met, and could barely resist the urge to draw his gas gun, switch to armour-piercing grenades, and cut loose without even his intro. He felt his daughter's hands on his arm, though, which helped remind him that there were some reasons that violence wouldn't work here.

Two reasons were the Negaverse's versions of Gosalyn and Quackerjack, themselves staring as Bulba lumbered towards them. And as he watched, he saw other details that marked this version of 'The Steerminator', as some press wags had named him, from the Negaverse's Taurus Bulba. The armour covered more of him, for one. It also seemed that the limbs lacked the mechanical grace from his universe's version, although that could be explained away by the more plentiful armament as well. Any fragment of Bulba that was not covered in thick armour or devoted to sensors and information junctions seemed to be supporting enough armament to keep a Third World dictactor happy for months. The large FOWL emblems also suggested a difference. Since FOWL in the Negaverse was a benevolent organisation, being affiliated with them was more of a badge of honour, so the cyborg sported the FOWL emblem in prominent locations, including on what seemed to be jet packs on his back.

He kept his hand on the gun's grip, though. At Dark Gosalyn's whispering, he gently guided her again behind him relative to Bulba. 'I know this is the Negaverse, sweetie,' he whispered to her. 'I hope he's as opposite of the real Bulba as me and Negaduck.'

'He should be, from what the guys have been saying. He was even that Gosalyn's dad,' she replied.

Darkwing nodded, watching.

As Bulba approached, Quackerjack was obviously trying to keep his Gosalyn behind him. He stared at the faceplate of the cyborg, noticing that while it was eerily similar to the first hero of the city, it was clearly all metallic. Somehow that made it even less comforting. 'H ... hello?' he stutterred.

Bulba knocked him aside with a powerful swipe of his hand; Quackerjack groaned as he fell out of what he was sure would be a duck-shaped dent in the wall. Bulba focussed what seemed to be his gaze--it looked more like a homing laser--on Gosalyn, who backed slightly from him. He stared down at the smaller girl, with Morg coming up beside them. 'Gosalyn,' she said, 'don't you want to greet your daddy?'

The duckling stared up at Bulba's face. His frame blocked out most of the room's lighting, leaving only a few telltale lights to mark where it was in the first place. Still, she reached a shaking hand up to the cheekplate. 'Daddy?' she asked, fear overtaking hope in her voice.

Bulba stared down, and went to a knee. Darkwing's hat fell off from the sound of the tonnage hitting the floor; Dark Gosalyn retrieved it for him as they watched Bulba react to his adopted daughter. Suddenly, his right hand shot forward, smashing through the wall behind the little girl. Gosalyn squealed as she tried to hide from the falling debris, and even Morg reacted, ducking behind a console. 'Taurus,' Morg said, 'careful there. We haven't run the full tests on your strength and motion calibration!'

Bulba turned his head, the glowing red dots centring on the forehead of the tall scientist. Darkwing had to again suppress the urge to open fire; the idea of laser sights converging on Morgana Macawber's head was one of the few things that got through his blustery armour. It didn't help when the beams returned to the Negaverse's Gosalyn; that was one of the few things that hit him even harder. 'Gos,' he said, 'are you SURE this is a good idea?'

'No,' she answered. 'But I think it's like in those robot conversion movies where the robot doesn't know his own strength.'

'Bulba in our world wasn't like that,' he reminded her.

Bulba himself was paying no heed to them; he was still staring impassively at his Gosalyn. He reached with his left hand, slowly, to the little girl, gently touching a fingertip to her cheek, then pushing her half a foot before the hand stopped moving. He stayed that way for a few moments, one finger touching his daughter, his right hand still buried in the wall he had driven it into.

Gosalyn herself sobbed slightly. She stared at the brushed metal forming her father's features, and held what seemed to be a tiny hand to the gauntlet. A tear came down from her eye and onto the steel against her face. 'Are you really my daddy?' she asked, and started climbing the arm beside her. She ignored the gasps from Quackerjack and Darkwing, approaching the paneled face before her. The lasers tracked her, but the cyborg held still as Gosalyn clambered up to the head.

She reached to brush her fingertips across a cheekplate, and the head turned ever so slightly at the contact. 'Your face is cold, Daddy,' Gosalyn choked out through her tears.

The cyborg then said, 'I am cold.' The voice was recognisable as Taurus Bulba's tone, but it sounded more artificial, and his mouth did not move. In fact, as Gosalyn ran her finger over the lips, she found that it was a solid piece of metal, shaking only from the sound from what had to be loudspeakers to provide the voice.

'There is no heat in my flesh,' he continued. 'The flesh ... ' He turned his head, and the lasers seemed to scan his left hand. 'I cannot feel. I sense, but I cannot feel.'

'Daddy, I'm here,' Gosalyn sobbed. 'I'm here, Daddy, right here.' She tried to hug him, shivering as the indeed cold metal touched her.

'I ... cannot feel you, Gosalyn. My Gosalyn ... where are you? I hear your voice. I sense your biosignal. I saw you. I cannot feel you,' Bulba said.

Darkwing winced as Dark Gosalyn hugged him tightly, and figured that it would be best to not mention the tears seeping into his coat for her sake. He remembered how she felt about her grandfather, taken from her by criminals, the sort he swore long ago to put to justice, and knew this sort of reunion would tear at his daughter. Perhaps they would need to visit him at the cemetery when they returned to their world, he thought.

The other Gosalyn by now had tried putting her hands on Bulba's cheekplates, trying to focus the eyes on her. 'I'm here, Daddy! Can't you see me? Can't you feel me?'

'No,' Bulba replied. 'Gosalyn, I cannot. I sense you in the room, but ... no feeling. Why are you distant?'

'I'm right here, Daddy,' Gosalyn sobbed, sinking down to try holding her head to his chest. 'Right here,' she repeated.

The lasers started scanning the room again. 'Searching for Gosalyn Waddlemeyer,' Bulba's voice read. This time it sounded less like a man and more like a machine; Darkwing again shifted to make sure his Gosalyn was hidden behind him.

Morg finally cleared her throat as the lasers reached her. 'Um, Taurus Bulba, I'm Morg Macawber. I helped rebuild you after your last battle with Negaduck. We've been working on you for years now, and it's great to have you back fighting crime!'

'Negaduck,' he repeated hollowly.

'That's right,' she said. 'He's been defeated, but you're still needed here.'

Bulba turned his head back to where his arm was embedded in the wall. 'I am ... Taurus Bulba. I ... fight Negaduck. Negaduck.' He trembled, and his free hand clenched into a fist.

'Daddy, you're back,' Gosalyn said, trying to get his attention. 'You don't need to worry about Negaduck any more. Darkwing Duck took care of him!'

Darkwing smiled as he heard Gosalyn's adoring voice. He never could deny his greatness, especially since he did eradicate Negaduck from this universe. The fact that Negaduck was stuck in his world was a minor setback that he would soon rectify, of course. He tugged his arm away from Dark Gosalyn, straightened his lapels, and reminded himself that he was approaching the greatest hero of this universe, other than himself.

He strode up behind Bulba and cleared his throat. 'That's right, Mr Bulba! You can thank me for--'

Darkwing cut his speech short as Bulba turned to him. Staring at the carved metal face, he felt himself wilt involuntarily. All tales aside, it was the face of the monster who casually threw his daughter-to-be to her death and very nearly killed him in the process. 'Er, for assisting you in ridding this world of the taint of--'

This time Bulba interrupted him. 'NEGADUCK!' he roared. As Darkwing tried to recompose himself, Bulba ripped his right arm out of the wall, demolishing most of it, and grabbed him in a hard grip.

'Hey, what gives?' Darkwing said as he tried to wriggle from the crushing fist. 'I thought you were a hero!'

The lasers converged on Darkwing, running up his bill to right between his eyes; Darkwing could have sworn he felt the heat of those targeting beams on his skull. 'And you, Negaduck, will die.'

--

Dark Gosalyn stayed back as Darkwing first approached Bulba. Even with knowing how opposite universes work, and all the things the other Gosalyn had said, she still felt leery of even getting close to the mechanical monster before her--especially since the last time she met him, he was trying to kill her then-wheelchair bound father.

This meant that she had a good view as Bulba snatched Darkwing up in a death grip. Bulba still scared her, but now she had to save his life. Looking around the lab, she saw what seemed to be a gun of some sort, attached to the wall. She dashed over to it, past Morg and the others, and grabbed it. 'Gosalyn, that's our M3 grease gun, able to deliver 450 gallons per minute of fire-resistant grease!' Morg yelled.

Dark Gosalyn groaned. She was hoping that it was a flamethrower or a laser rifle. Still, a grease gun had its uses, especially with her father about to be crushed to death in Taurus Bulba's huge mechanical hand. As he drew his fist back, she took aim and let out a stream of grease, aimed at her father.

Bulba tightened his grip as he prepared to end Darkwing's life, just as Darkwing was soaked in grease. Darkwing spluttered and looked to his daughter. Bulba then squeezed tighter ... which shot Darkwing out of his greased fist and into the ceiling. Darkwing landed on his rear, and shook out his flattened hat, then sprang to his feet. 'Slippery as an eel, that's me!' he boasted, and tried to dash off. The grease still on him caused his exit to be less than controlled, though, slipping and sliding all over.

Bulba snarled and aimed his Gatling cannons at him. Letting out a scream of rage, the maddenned bull let loose, but Darkwing's slipping allowed him to evade the hail of bullets. 'Embrace the chaos,' he thought to himself, adding his own random manoeuvres to get to safety. He looked back across the room as Bulba raged, stomping throughout the chamber. A pop and hiss drew both their attentions to what looked like an inflatable bunker painted in gaudy colours. Darkwing smiled as he surmised Quackerjack's doing. The clown knew his stuff--Bulba reflexively fired on the bunker, and while the bunker was knocked away, it sprang back with a mechanical-sounding laugh. He could even see Quackerjack, Gosalyn, and Morg inside; they were taken care of.

What worried him was seeing Dark Gosalyn still wielding her grease gun, staring in fear at the huge cyborg. Bulba turned to her, his scanning lasers running over her as she stood frozen. He turned to reach for her, and Darkwing couldn't trust what Bulba would do. It's one thing for him to face thousands of rounds per minute, but he had to get his daughter out of there. He fired off a smoke grenade from his gun to cloud Bulba's vision ('Good thing I loaded that special laser-proof smoke,' he thought to himself), then dove out from his cover to snatch Dark Gosalyn away.

Bulba roared in confusion as Dark Gosalyn disappeared from his scanners. He was so close to regaining her and eliminating his hated foe ... and now that part of the room went dark. Without thinking about it, a radar emitter rose from his back. Soon, he noticed Dark Gosalyn's signature next to the wall ... and another racing to grab her away. He shot a fist out, but was too slow; he smashed a dent into the wall, and could only turn to see Dark Gosalyn held by his nemesis.

'Thanks, Dad,' Dark Gosalyn said as she hugged him. Darkwing sighed to himself as his daughter lapsed; she was usually good with not calling him that when he was in his outfit, but times like this were stressful all around. He hugged her behind him as Bulba faced them again, his left Gatling already whirring in preparation to fire.

'You won't do that again, Negaduck!' Bulba roared. 'Release her, and I will kill you quickly.'

'And if not?' Darkwing asked.

'It would be better for her to die than to spend another minute with you!'

'He's not Negaduck!' Dark Gosalyn shouted. 'He's Darkwing Duck! We're just from another universe!' She climbed up over his shoulder to yell at Bulba. 'So stop shooting at him!'

'Biological signs match that of MALLARD, Drake. Wanted for murder, kidnapping, racketeering, inciting civil unrest, attempted genocide. And kidnapping my daughter!' Bulba roared.

To Darkwing's and Dark Gosalyn's surprise, a door opened across Bulba's chest, revealing a video screen. It flickered to life, and both gasped as they saw a tilted, static-shot view of Negaduck as he approached the camera. In the background, they could hear a groan, and surrounding the scene were smouldering ruins. The scene moved slightly, and shook as they heard a cough.

Negaduck came up close, and reached down, grabbing something. They saw a hint of snout as the view straightened and rose, and finally figure it out. 'This is from Bulba's memory,' Darkwing said.

'Indeed,' he replied.

They watched as Negaduck reached, and slapped Bulba across the face a few times. 'Well, Steerminator,' he sneered, 'it looks like your time is up. Too bad the fun's over.'

'I'll ... ' was all that the former hero could answer.

Negaduck posed, mockingly waiting for last words. 'Aw, nothing witty here? Oh, that's right. You don't have enough internal organs left!' Another grunt from Bulba; Darkwing could tell from Negaduck's body language that he just threw a kick at the downed crimefighter. 'But whatever will become of your darling daughter?'

'G ... Gos ... '

'That's right, Gosalyn. Hmm. I could kill her. But then you two would have a nice happy reunion in heaven.' He sneered as he leaned in close, beak pressing against snout. 'No, she needs a guiding hand. Someone who'll show her just what kind of girl she needs to be. Someone to take GOOD care of her. And I know just the duck.

'Just think. Maybe in a few years ... why, I could shape her into a carjacker. Imagine her prowling the streets, looking for a quick buck and a fast ride. Or maybe ... a drug dealer! All the crack a duck can ask for, for the right price. Or maybe ... ' Negaduck stroked his chin, smiling. 'Or maybe she can sell other ... services. Maybe that would be a fitting career for the daughter of Taurus Bulba. I'd need to personally train her, of course.'

'You ... ' A fist shot into the frame, a last swing at the evil. Negaduck casually dodged it.

'And if nothing else works ... there's always making her into a mass murderer. Or even all of the above. Every crime you can think of. Every sin God has ever decreed, and a few even He couldn't imagine a duck doing. All at the feet of your little girl. I'm not gonna kill her. I'm gonna ruin her soul. You won't even meet her in Heaven after she's dead. And she'll want nothing to do with that place anyway.'

Negaduck reached into his cape, and pulled out an axe. 'First things first. We gotta follow the adoption laws, you know. First ... is Gosalyn Bulba an orphan? Doesn't seem like she is. We'll fix that.' The axe swung up, swung down, and the screen went dark.

The door closed back over the monitor, and Bulba's eyes glowed red. 'You will not have another chance!' he roared, and threw his arm back, ready to punch. The fist then retracted, and replaced itself with a spiked mace head, easily large enough to leave Darkwing and Dark Gosalyn very flat in a single bloody crater.

* * *

And ... sorry for how long this took; real life intervened. Also, I noticed that I'd really written 1 1/2 chapters of material, so I had to break it down a little. Chapter 7 hopefully won't take as long. QI


	7. Chapter 7

OPPOSITE RECIPROCAL  
Copyright 2008 by Q Illespont  
All characters are property of their respective owners  
Chapter 7

* * *

Quackerjack could only listen in shock as Bulba revealed what happenned as he fell to Negaduck; Gosalyn shudderred in his arms as she relived those memories. For a few moments, he mentally cheered as Bulba prepared to end Drake Mallard's life.

Then he remembered that this was Darkwing Duck that was facing his wrath. From his bunker, he started going through his options. He found what he wanted: a set of armour-piercing jacks, designed to stop tanks. Fitting for the killing machine that was once his mentor in crimefighting, he thought to himself. He hadn't brought his full offensive loadout for what he was expecting to be a routine trip, and before he can focus on offense, he has to make sure that Darkwing and Dark Gosalyn can get away.

Quackerjack considered his options, and watched for blind spots. Finding a route, he opened the door to his inflatable bouncy bunker. As he did, Gosalyn quickly dashed his plans to disrupt Bulba's intention by rushing out towards the cyborg that was once her father, screaming at the top of her lungs. 'Daddy! Daddy!' she yelled as she ran over to them, shoes skidding slightly on the laboratory floor.

Gosalyn raced up Bulba's back and tried to grab his mace-arm. 'Don't do it, Daddy!' She tried to tug at him, futilely hanging from his arm.

Darkwing winced as he heard her voice from on Bulba's arm. He knew his daughter was still by him; he had shifted so she was behind him. Hopefully the energy from Bulba's killing blow would be absorbed turning him into a red smear and Dark Gosalyn would only be heavily injured, he thought. But seeing the other girl race to Bulba gave him an idea. He mutterred, 'Follow my lead,' to his daughter, then put on his best imitation of Negaduck's voice. He felt it was the most difficult imitation he ever tried, even though Launchpad and Gosalyn always said it was on the mark. 'Well, Bulba,' he snarled, 'it looks like I failed! Look at her, crying for her daddy! So I'll just surrender and go to prison like the scum I am.'

One of the scanning lasers moved to Gosalyn, still tugging and crying into her father's arm. He flicked it, and swung it down, but not in his original killing blow. Instead, he brought Gosalyn down like a flail, smashing her into Darkwing and bringing both down in groaning pain. 'I was really wishing that worked,' Darkwing said, trying to not jostle the other Gosalyn. Wait ... there was only one girl. Where was his daughter?

His search was interrupted with a shouted doom. 'No more tricks! No more chances! No more life!' The Gatling cannons on Bulba's arms spun up to speed as he took aim, bracing himself. Loud clanks suggested mechanisms set to absorb the recoil and make sure each round--and, given the Gatling principle, it would be several--would hit their targets.

'No you don't!' Dark Gosalyn yelled. Darkwing winced as she brought attention to herself, although it seemed to not affect Bulba's fixation. However, instead of the roar of rounds firing, a horrible grinding and clanking came from the rotating guns. Darkwing and Gosalyn looked over at the cyborg, and caught sight of what caused the sound.

The cannons had stopped spinning, and the barrels looked in fine shape. The ammo feeds were for the most part fine as well, but where they led into the firing mechanisms, they could see several spiked objects, ruining it. Another set had lodged into the guns' rotation mechanism, jamming that.

'Hah!' Dark Gosalyn yelled, and Darkwing turned to see she was near the inflatable bouncy bunker, Quackerjack smiling behind her. 'Armour piercing jacks. Works every time,' she gloated.

A whirring brought her attention back to Bulba; a missile launcher was extending from his back, up and over his shoulder. The lasers aligned on her, and she gulped. 'Um, OK, maybe this was a freak victory?' she tried, backing away. Not the first missile she'd been threatened with, but she definitely wanted it to not be the last.

'Goodbye, Gosalyn,' Bulba said as he launched the rocket.

Before the missile could strike, though, Quackerjack snatched Dark Gosalyn up and bounced away on his spring-shoes, unable to suppress a clownish giggle. 'It's play time!' he called out, eliciting a wince from Dark Gosalyn.

Another rocket fired, and another, but it seemed that Quackerjack's random bouncing was enough to shake Bulba's aim. Dark Gosalyn caught a cloud of blue smoke in the corner of her eye, and smiled in satisfaction; her father was making a quick exit for another route of attack, and had apparently taken her double with him.

She then reached into her shirt, and discovered she no longer had the axe she'd originally had when she reached the Negaverse. 'What'd you do with my axe?' she asked Quackerjack.

He turned his head to respond as he bounced into the rafters, but never had a chance to answer; with a loud grunt and several quacks, he slammed full-speed into Darkwing and the other Gosalyn, sending all four crashing to the ground. The last thing he heard was the clatter of a smoke grenade falling to the floor shortly before he hit.

--

Darkwing groaned as he got up, assessing his injuries. Bruises, bumps, and the all-too-familiar sensation of a cracked rib greeted him. He still stood up and checked around.

Quackerjack was in an unconscious heap, and splayed over the apparently unconscious heap that was Morg. His daughter was wincing as she got up, but seemed allright; she had landed by the other Gosalyn, and was trying to help her up. The shriek from the other little girl told Darkwing all he needed to know about how she fared in the fall. That, plus the grotesque angle her right leg was in, plainly said that her leg was at best broken.

Dark Gosalyn hesitated, trying to remember her first aid classes. It was a brief course, but she remembered two things that applied here. First, never move an injured patient. Second, that the exception to the first was imminent danger. And she saw the lasers converging on her spot; this place was extremely dangerous right now.

Darkwing tried to distract Bulba by setting off a grenade and starting his introduction speech. 'I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the grit that grinds your gears! I ... am Darkwing Duck!' He then tried flapping his cape, and making more general noise, trying to draw Bulba's attention to him.

But the cyborg's attention was focussed on the two girls. Dark Gosalyn seemed to be trying gingerly to lift the other girl, who was openly crying, and staring at the face of what was once her father. 'Daddy!' she yelled again.

A snort echoed out from behind the mask. 'You are injured.' The lasers converged on the horrible twist in the leg. 'Injured,' he reported. 'Gosalyn ... injured ... ' He reached with a hand, carefully, towards her. Dark Gosalyn tried to interpose herself, but a twitch of a finger sent her flying into a nearby wall with a thud. 'Daughter ... are you hurt?' he managed to say, touching the finger to the area.

Gosalyn yelped at the brush there, and nodded. 'Yeah,' she managed, and looked up at him. 'Daddy, help me,' she said.

Bulba brought his other hand down as a protective wall for his daughter. 'I'll keep you from ... ' He then twitched. 'From ... from being hurt more ... world hateful ... ' The finger jolted forward, and Gosalyn screamed as her leg was crushed under it. 'Failure in arm servo. Reaim for best result.' His arm drew back again. And this time, it was unmistakable. The compassion that crept into his voice had left as the mace reappeared.

Darkwing made his painful way over to the cyborg. 'Don't kill her,' he yelled. 'What kind of father kills his own daughter, huh? I thought you rescued her once!'

Bulba's arm jerked forward, then paused. He still faced the other Gosalyn, and by this time Dark Gosalyn had returned from the dent she left in the wall. A growl came from behind the mask, and he didn't turn, but he asked, 'Rescue from ... hate, dark world ... '

A jingling from the opposite side of the room announced Quackerjack's reawakening. 'We won, Taurus! We won in the end, and we're taking care of her!'

'Do you want her last memory to be fear as you kill her? And don't forget there's ANOTHER little girl in the way, too. What superhero kills civilians, hm?' Darkwing pressed, getting behind the bull. 'You're about to murder two little girls. Negaduck wanted to ruin Gosalyn, but it looks like he ruined you too.' He hated to sneak like this, but he hadn't recovered fully from the fall yet. Plus, a frontal assault against Bulba would accomplish little more than his death immediately before the Gosalyns'. Sacrificing his life was one thing, but he'd rather have survivors remember him a hero instead of meeting him in the afterlife shortly afterward.

By now, Dark Gosalyn had gotten back. She saw her father as well, but the other girl held her arm up to try to hold her back. 'Don't,' she managed, still on the ground. Dark Gosalyn frowned and looked to the paused cyborg, obviously ill at ease. Gosalyn then spoke up, 'Daddy, it's still you. You're not a monster.'

Bulba growled louder, and sagged; one of the armour-piercing jacks fell out from his jammed cannon. 'This world ... you should not hurt ... ' The mace-arm twitched forward, eliciting startled gasps from the onlookers. Gosalyn, however, stayed looking up at the mask covering her father's face.

'Daddy,' she said, 'if you want to kill me ...go ahead.'

'No!' the other three ducks yelled at the idea, but Gosalyn shook her head. 'If that's what he wants,' she said, and stared up at him, cheeks still wet from her earlier tears; the others could not tell if they were from her emotions, or from her destroyed leg. 'Go ahead, Daddy,' she said.

Bulba shuddered, and it sounded like gears were grinding inside the massive body. 'No,' he said. 'I cannot ... I must.' The arm wavered again, and Darkwing knew he had to strike now.

He made his way up the back, using the equipment mounted there as handholds. Bulba's focus was on Gosalyn; he seemed to not care about the caped crimefighter's climbing. There, he could see the other Gosalyn, bowing her head to give Bulba a clear shot to kill her. He could also feel the subtle twitches in the cyborg's body even before the machinery started giving away his inner turmoil. He searched in his coat for a tool to try to open the armour.

Bulba apparently realised that Darkwing was there, since in a voice that only the Midnight Mallard could hear, he said, 'Access panel G 9. Base of skull. Access to primary life support.'

Darkwing blinked at the odd hint from his enemy. Bulba whispered again. 'End this before I kill her. Kill ... must kill ... ' Bulba roared again, almost shaking Darkwing off of his frame. The fist reared back again.

'Gos? Cover your eyes,' Darkwing said. He found the panel, opened it, and saw even inside was well protected; however, this armour would definitely not be designed to withstand something that would be shrugged off the exterior. He sighed, and stuck the muzzle of his gas gun into the hatch and selected what he hoped would be a sufficient load.

Dark Gosalyn grabbed her double and turned her away, holding tightly. This left her to see as well as hear Darkwing's gas gun discharge, as well as the flash and bang of the bomb he had selected, and to see him spring away.

Bulba roared, but this was not even close to what his natural voice was; Darkwing's round must have smashed that as well. Bulba reared back, smoke rising from his head area, and stood like that for a few moments. Dark Gosalyn tugged the other girl with her back a few paces, drawing a few more yelps from her, and watched as the cyborg twitched, then fell forward with a crash, the shock knocking both of them down.

Darkwing dropped down next to the girls, looking to his daughter. She kept staring at the fallen android, holding her sobbing alternate tightly. 'Did you ... ' he asked, leaving the rest of the question silent.

'Yeah,' Dark Gosalyn answered, 'I saw.'

'I'm sorry,' Darkwing said, and set a hand on each girl's shoulder. Gosalyn kept sobbing; Dark Gosalyn said nothing in return.

--

Notes: Final chapter coming up next. Finally.


	8. Chapter 8

OPPOSITE RECIPROCAL  
Copyright 2008 by Q Illespont  
All characters are property of their respective owners, mainly Disney.  
Chapter 8

* * *

Darkwing and Dark Gosalyn stood by the TARDAT, looking back at the Friendly Four. The others had converged, rushing when the alarm had first sounded, but had only reached the base several minutes after Taurus Bulba's death. Megavolt had taken over holding Gosalyn when he arrived; he sighed inwardly, knowing that his choice of a more water-resistant costume, based on the girl's past, was one of his best investments.

'Well,' Darkwing said, 'it's time for us to get back to our world. Take care of her, OK?' The Friendly Four nodded as one.

The other Gosalyn finally lifted her head up, and looked to the departing ducks. By now she'd had her shatterred leg put in a cast, and was sitting in a wheelchair; she'd get a set of crutches before leaving. 'You'll be back, right, Gosalyn?' she asked.

Darkwing tugged nervously at his collar, while Dark Gosalyn fidgeted. The Negaverse was, aside from the disturbing FOWL icons around them, not a bad place to be in. 'It's not my phone booth,' Dark Gosalyn hedged.

She watched as the other girl wheeled herself over and hugged her tightly. 'I'll miss you,' she said. 'I'm glad I met my Darkverse duplicate.'

Dark Gosalyn winced slightly at that, but reached to hug the other girl. 'Glad to meet you, too,' she said. She did feel awkward, and was certain that if anyone ever saw this version of her she'd never live it down at school, but her heart still went out to her. Once in a while she'd think about the rougher parts of her past and feel sullen, but this version had it worse and was still true to herself.

Flashbulbs broke her train of thought, and she stared at two camera-wielding ducks. Quackerjack was winding the film in his, and answered, 'Hey, this is a priceless moment in Gosalyn's childhood!'

Dark Gosalyn grumbled, and sighed as she saw her father putting his camera away. 'And what's your excuse, Dad?'

'Research material, sweetie. By viewing you in close proximity to your Negaverse duplicate, I can more fully research the differences and similarities between the two worlds.' He then walked over and gave both girls a hair-ruffle. 'And this is about the only way I'm gonna ever see you in something as sweet as this dress.'

Gosalyn giggled at her double's discomfort. 'It'd look cute on you!'

'Right,' Dark Gosalyn said, 'let's get back to our world!'

The girls let go of each other, and Dark Gosalyn climbed into the TARDAT, followed by her father. 'You know what, Dad?' she griped.

'What, Gos?' her father grunted, trying to pull his leg in the cockpit.

'They could've at least sprung for a trailer!'

--

Darkwing let out a relieved sigh as he leaned back on the towel spread under him, and shifted his hat to cover his eyes better. A few metres away, he could hear ducks splashing in the ocean, and he smirked to himself as he tried to identify each one. He heard a huge splash, and chuckled. 'Launchpad, be careful out there with Gos and Honker!' he called warily.

'What was that, DW?' he heard from behind, and sighed. Apparently he hadn't quite judged the mass hitting the water surface quite right.

'I meant that when you join the kids, tell Gosalyn that she doesn't have to try to knock the water out of the ocean, there'll be plenty more to replace it,' he said to him. He still kept his eyes shut, and now could tell where she was, as well as her friend Honker; the other duckling barely registered as far as personal sound volume, but if you knew what to listen for you could tell.

The reason he was wearing his hat--and mask, too--hugged up close to him. 'Dark, darling, are you sure this is safe?' Morgana asked, and he turned his head to look at her; training was one thing, but he never could get too much of Morgana Macawber. Especially so close to him and wearing a black one-piece with red spider designs. He also saw she was very ill at ease, staring around as if frightened. 'It's so bright and sunny out here, darling. Sure the children are going to be allright? I keep thinking some lawyer or mailman is going to come by and do ... horrible things.'

Darkwing smiled to himself and answered, 'I'm sure. We're here for them.' He kept his eyes on her as she hugged herself, her own eyes darting around much as a typical person would glance fearfully in the dead of night. While both he and she were more night people, he had at least passing familiarity with daytime, and no superstitious baggage to accompany it. Morgana had been out in daytime before, but had been taught how dangerous bright sunny days were ever since she was a young girl. They were here mainly as a favour from J Gander Hooter, who'd let them have a bit of time at a SHUSH resort facility that was curiously not in use, likely to help protect his identity as well as that of those with him. A slight breeze helped ruffle his hat brim and took the edge off of the hot summer's day.

Morgana reached a hand up under the hat to ruffle his feathers, calmed by his closeness. 'Something on your mind, Dark dearest?' she asked.

'Just the two most important women in my life,' he answered distractedly. He then yelped as Morgana's fingers clenched in a fist in his head, and realised his error.

He found himself staring eye-to-eye with Morgana as she stood; he was dangling from her clenched fist, hanging by his feathers. 'WHO IS SHE?' she yelled.

'The athletic redhead over there!' he managed, pointing to the approaching Gosalyn; the girl did have a sense of when he was in danger. Normally he wanted to discourage her getting in the middle of life-threatening adventures, but here was an exception since she and Morgana got along pretty well. And she'd help verify he was telling the truth. 'I was just thinking about how much I love the both of you and what great kind wonderful sweet people you are!'

'He saw us in the Negaverse,' Gosalyn said in support. 'I was OK, but yeesh.'

Morgana looked at Gosalyn, then to the pleadingly-smiling Darkwing, and blushed. 'Oh ... um, I'm sorry, Dark,' she managed, and set him back on the blanket. Gosalyn chuckled as Darkwing wiped nervous sweat from his brow and ran back to cannonball back into the sea 'It must be how weird it is out here.'

'It's allright, Morg,' Darkwing said. A calm Morgana was what was best, and her hurling hexbolts would hiner his happines, he hastily thought to himself. 'I just wish--' he then cut himself off before finishing.

'You wish what, darling?' Morgana said, and Darkwing was sure a few degrees were missing from the tone in her voice.

'That you'd tell me more about how you feel. Are you jealous of Gosalyn?' he tried. Show caring, avoid blame, and not get fried. Smooth! I hope, he added to himself.

Morgana sighed and relaxed for a moment, and shook her head. 'Not of her, no, Dark dearest,' she answered. She then tensed as she continued, 'I just sometimes worry that you might ... well ... '

He hugged her closer. 'Might what, Morg?' he asked.

'Might leave me for someone who ... ' Morgana fidgeted more, fingers twiddling anxiously. She then groaned, and hurriedly said, 'For someone who was never a criminal. There.' She sighed and put her arm around him.

'I would never do that, Morgana!' Darkwing proclaimed. 'And I still love you the way you are now. Even the other version of you wasn't the same. Even though she was born a good guy, she's not you.'

'You don't think about her, then? Or wish I was her?'

Darkwing chuckled. 'It's something I've thought of, yes.' Indeed, he had; he'd been pondering how different, yet similar, the two were, as well as the others in the Negaverse. The most apparent opposite was morality, which everyone seemed to have there, save for two.

While most ducks wanted heroes to win, they tended to be morally neutral, no strong tendencies either way; their Negaverse counterparts would be similar, which would be why Gosalyn mentioned the citizens didn't seem that different until she met people who in their world were more or less aligned. And only Gosalyn and Morgana had good versions in both worlds.

However, they also had something in common: they both had met Darkwing Duck. He'd broken into Gosalyn's orphanage to take a look at her file, and it seemed that she was on her way to street thuggery--there was even a memo from the day he'd met her first, something about a pig in the boys' room. And Morgana was robbing banks when he first came across her. Yet both were, more or less, on the side of crimefighting and not crimecommitting.

The evil doubles were in his world, but they'd turned. He smiled and brushed off some sand from his chest. 'Something I think of a lot.'

'And what exactly are you thinking, Dark?' Morgana asked.

Darkwing then stood up, bringing her with him. He then dipped her back and gave her a long, loving kiss. 'That love conquers the laws of quantum physics,' he answered, and returned to his blanket.

Morgana felt like a little smoke came from her beak as she sighed and smiled, still staring up, and still floating at an angle from where Darkwing had dipped her back.

* * *

Thank you for your patience; this was delayed as the first draft was lost when I lost ... um, everything else on my hard drive. And thus ends 'Opposite Reciprocal'.

Darkwing Duck will return in 'Ducks in a Row'.


End file.
